Why do we age and how can we prevent aging ? There is a new branch of medicine dealing with it, Anti Aging Medicine:
Science is pushing us already to live to 1,000 years (yes, one thousand years).
Time is nigh for that. The first man to live to 1,000 is probably in his 60's now:
Looks like for the present time the best we can do or hope to do is to slow down the natural aging process. Healthy eating, exercise, meditate, drink plenty of water to keep skin well hydrated, etc. We can try to age as best and gracefully as possible, but, eventually everyone gets older.
Living to be 1,000 might be okay if someone had a stockpile of money that never ran out. (LOL) or didn’t mind working most of that lifespan.
If we lived to 1,000, does that mean we would work 650 years before retiring?
And what about earth over population?
I don’t think it’s a good idea for now…
In wakefulness of one’s true inner nature, length of time of the human apparatus becomes inconsequential. Besides the human psyche was never designed to exist these extended lengths of time, most likely it would become inoperative at some point.
Scholars argue that in ancient India, in Lord Krishna’s time, average age for humans was 160 yrs and some people claim to be living in Himalayas for 200+ years. Years are of course a human scale, as Ray points out and if multi-tiered gross-to-subtle life-forms are taken as reality, ‘life’ would continue on the subtle levels even after the end of physical life.
Then, duration of physical or any life becomes insignificant on any level. What appears to be terminating is actually transitioning. More than duration then, goal of life becomes the key. Early awareness of one’s subtle self would leave greater opportunities for karma redemption. If today is yesterday played all over again, any length of duration will be wasteful living.
If death is transition and change a linear continuity, we age and die piecemeal, every moment. In living we die and in death are we born again. Medicine will keep us merely alive by curing in reaction mode, spirituality will keep us meaningfully alive in a preventive, pro-active mode. Beauty of getting spiritual as we age is the realization what death really is and the understanding of the purpose of life so that living right takes a premium over living long.
Yep and the Christian Bible says they lived even longer 900 years etc…
Ray is dead on accurate I have known many that are 80 plus years and they all are perversions of whom they once were. They tend to be nothing more than an accentuated ego with a dis functional mind in a vile body.
Now knowing body and mind are one yet not the question must be asked if the body were kept In a youthful state would the perverted personality arise?
I tend to think the answer is yes. This existence is kept short for a reason proof that being here is difficult is that no one makes it out alive. Truth in jest, hit the rest button and clear the samskaras just a little from the foreground in order to forge ahead.
[QUOTE=Seeking;82999]
I have known many that are 80 plus years and they all are perversions of whom they once were. They tend to be nothing more than an accentuated ego with a dis functional mind in a vile body. [/QUOTE]
I have known many that are 80 plus years that are wonderful people that you can learn a lot from
I would like to live to be 100, but not 1000! Living beyond a certain age is not good for the planet…
To elaborate a bit more: The thing that worries me the most about old age is the burden it puts on the planet as we grow… At some point, I wonder if it becomes unsustainable
Good thought. But, its not what we are that is burdensome to the planet; but what we do. By all accounts, we are already the cruelest animal in the world who kills as as hobby and not when hungry.
Aging is part of living and it teaches us many things
Aging is a natural process that happens to us all. Why not embrace it without fear? Why try to extend the duration of life to 1,000 years? Perhaps trying to prevent aging and trying to extend the duration of life stems from fear of old age and death with a desire to cling to youthfulness and life in the physical body. Just go with the natural flow.
When I first joined FaceBook I was SHOCKED to see that kids that I went to High School with who were only in their early 30?s or even late 20?s already had grey in their hair and of course many of them were also overweight and looked like they could have a heart attack or be diagnosed with cancer any day…
I think that I look fairly young for my age (I?ll be turning 35 in a few months) and I do appreciate that, but at the same time I don?t feel so attached to it and worry about ageing the way that I used to and I credit a lot of that to yoga.
When I see an old man or an old woman doing yoga I smile and feel inspired and think to myself, ?I look forward to doing yoga when I?m an old man and sharing what I have learned over the past 50 or more years with others.?
[QUOTE=Lavendar;83340]Aging is a natural process that happens to us all. Why not embrace it without fear? Why try to extend the duration of life to 1,000 years? Perhaps trying to prevent aging and trying to extend the duration of life stems from fear of old age and death with a desire to cling to youthfulness and life in the physical body. Just go with the natural flow.[/QUOTE]
Aging is a natural process. I can only agree with that. The problem is how fast are we aging ?
Old people of The Old Testament lived for centuries, even to 900 years. What really happened is that genes from the viruses got into our genes and made us more prone to diseases and fast aging. I quote medical reports, not my imagination.
Death is hereditary.
[QUOTE=YogaSurvey;83178]I would like to live to be 100, but not 1000! Living beyond a certain age is not good for the planet…[/QUOTE]
A man 110 years old was asked what is the best thing in his life.
Answer: no peer pressure.
I have 0 desire to live to be 1,000, at least not in this body. Your mind might be able to live to 1,000 but your body would be so frail you could not do anything.
I am just reading the book “Ageless Body, Timeless Mind” by Dr. Deepak Chopra.
He quotes Shankara: “People die because they see other people dying.”
This means that we auto-condition ourselves to the experiences of aging, suffering, and death. Remove this auto-conditioning and your life will become longer, maybe forever.
It is true that plants and animals die. But they do not have inside themselves the power which God put into people, the power of their minds, the power of free choice.
Your body is the result of the signals which the cells send to the brain, which processes them. This processing of signals takes place through the “software” in our body. But the brain itself is exposed to shocks and changes and whatever. Who writes this “software?”
Obviously there is your eternal Self, well known to practitioners of spiritual yoga. Your Self can change the “software.”
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/07/15/is_dna_hypercommunication_a_native_internet.htm
Science has already explained some mystic occurences. Science has shown how through
prayer and concentration we can change our DNA’s, how we can heal ourselves…and many other things.
It is a world out there…and you can master it !