Is There Any Relation Of Age To Being Aware Of Your True Self?

[LRyan]

I've been reading a lot of posts on here and I am curious to know what you think about how age may play a role in either being interested in spiritual enlightenment or the age at which someone becomes aware that they are not separate and are able to realize their ego and work towards letting it go.  

Do you think that a person needs some amount of personal history of suffering in order to turn towards themselves?  Or maybe age has no bearing whatsoever here.  I'm curious to hear opinions on this...

 

Edited April 4, 2017 by LRyan

[Prabhaker]

@LRyan In ancient India the wise people decided that by the time one is fifty-one should start preparing for 'vanprashtha'. His face should be now towards the mountains, towards the forest -- that is the meaning of 'vanprashtha'. He is still in the world, but now his whole consciousness has turned and he is getting ready to move into the deep forest to be alone. The days of meditation have come.

According to yoga and tantra, life can be divided into seven year fragments. A child enters the first change when he is seven. Then his childhood is over. A great change. When he is fourteen sex enters into life. Another great change. Now he will have a different outlook, different desires. At twenty-one ambition enters into life. He becomes more political, rebellious, protesting, fighting -- ready to fight with anybody. He becomes a revolutionary. At twenty-eight he starts settling, he becomes more interested in comfort, a bank balance, a good salary, a good home, a wife, a child, a TV, a car -- things like that. He starts becoming more square. After twenty-eight a man becomes a house-holder. 

By the age of thirty-five a man becomes almost established -- whatsoever has happened he becomes established. If he has succeeded he becomes established in his success; if he has failed he becomes established in his failure. Then he knows that now nothing can be done; whatsoever has happened has happened. Now he is not in any way ready to fight; he relaxes.

By the age of forty-two he starts becoming a little bit aware.... What is he doing here, earning money, power, prestige? Death is coming. Death knocks at the door for the first time near about forty-two -- that is the age when you have heart attacks and blood pressure and cancer and things like that. That is the first knock. Beware of the age forty-two, it is the most dangerous age. Then you start feeling a little shaky, then you start feeling a little trembling inside, you are no longer as certain as you used to be. You lose confidence. You have lived, you have known money, you have known wife, children, you have known sex and love, you have seen this and that, you have traveled around the world -- but nothing has satisfied you, it feels like something is missing. This is the moment when religion enters into your life. Now it depends on you. If you are very anti-religious you will miss the opportunity of being a seeker when death knocks.

But it happens to people at different times. To somebody it may happen at thirty-five, to somebody it may happen at fifty. If you are very intelligent it can happen early, if you are very stupid it will not happen even at forty-two -- it depends. Intelligent people start turning to religion from the very beginning. Yes, it is a question of intelligence, not a question of age. By the age of forty-two sex is no longer such an obsession. If you don't repress sex, sex loses meaning in its own time. Just as it becomes very, very meaningful at the age of fourteen, so it becomes very, very meaningless at the age of forty-two.

At the age of forty-nine again a great change happens. A man is not only interested in something greater than sex, he becomes involved, committed. At the age of forty-two he starts thinking, brooding, contemplating; by the age of forty-nine he starts being committed. he can become a monk, or, even if he does not take any outward form, he may start changing in his inside world. He will become a meditator, he will start praying. And this will be a commitment. Now this will not be a feeling, just a feeling, he will devote his whole life to it. Devotion arises at the age of forty-nine, commitment arises at the age of forty-nine. And if things go right, and you are not distracted by foolish people all around, by the age of fifty-six your meditation will start flowering -- the first satoris, the first glimpses of God will happen. And at the age of sixty-three you will be established in samadhi, you would have become enlightened -- if things go rightly.

[Arkandeus]

the best answer to most questions is infinity. 
be open-minded, you can awaken spiritually at any age, at any speed, after any event, for any reason. 

overcome limiting beliefs

if you believe you need a certain age or speed or time to awaken spiritually, you will manifest that reality, which is why what you believe is literally your limit, to open up your imagination and open-mindedness is to grow spiritually, literally

Edited April 4, 2017 by Arkandeus

[Prabhaker]

37 minutes ago, Arkandeus said:

you can awaken spiritually at any age, at any speed, after any event, for any reason

I agree, but topic was about 'Being Aware Of Your True Self'. Unless you are tremendously intelligent or tremendously rich, your journey towards being aware of your 'true self' will be very difficult at younger age.

[zazed]

I had a horrible childhood, one time around Christmas when i was 17 or so, everything felt against me. My parents were divorced since i was young, my dad was a nut job the entire town hated, my mom was depressed and had no interest in us. Life just felt horribly unfair and painful to me, I felt like white trash. I didn't get the affection or confirmations i wanted/needed as a child. It was Christmas, i was alone in my room, and i felt so unloved, so unwanted, so alone. On Christmas you're supposed to be happy with family, I thought.

So i started searching that same Christmas day when i was 17, just not to kill myself basically, i needed some solution and it was impossible to fix my life situation as a kid. So I learned about Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path helped me accept my suffering that was happening then. I started meditating, that calmed me down, it brought some sense of peace.

 

In my 30ies now, so i succeeded in surviving, huzzah!  
These days I find many of the religious side notes of Buddhism too much, so i don't identify as a Buddhist anymore. But i'll have eternal respect for the theosophy, it saved my life.