Conscious Aging with John Robinson, Ph.D.

Jul 06, 2018 8:00 AM EDT

I love this, thank you

- Marilyn Toone

Feb 05, 2018 7:41 PM EST

Yes, long silences of nothing. People have asked me as an aging person, "What are you going to do when you retire?" I say, "For the first year, I'm just going to sit on my deck!" It is a desire to depart from the World of Man, as you label. It is ending the "working for the man" syndrome that infects modern western life. Of course, I'll do more than just sit on my deck for a year. I'd get lonely.

- SeeGee

Feb 03, 2018 8:23 PM EST

I went to seminary, not to be a paid minister but to learn things that I didn't understand. I was assigned to write a paper so I chose Martin Luther. I looked in the reference information in our seminary for a book that would be my source for my paper. I found "Luther's Works". Great. I hurried off to the shelf where it was located. To my surprise, there were 55 volumes of Luther's Works. All were the size of a Bible. I was in a state of shock as a novice. There was another seminarian who went on and on with thoughts from hundreds of theology books read, comparing and contrasting, arguing doctrinal statements and interpretations, developing questions of exacting precision, referencing endless authors and sources to predicate support, doubt, or new questions. Frankly, it was intimidating, exhausting and demoralizing. I enjoyed what I learned in seminary. But what I also learned is that all of this is too complex. There must be a better way. And it has to be so simple that the least of us can access it. God, it seems now, isn't that complicated after all. God is with us all the time and always has been. It is just that our false self has trashed up and plugged up our clarity of vision. Getting my false self behind me is difficult but, it is now easier than reading 55 giant volumes of "Luther's Works"!

- SeeGee

Feb 04, 2018 9:22 AM EST

Thank you. I would feel exactly the same.

- John Robinson

Feb 04, 2018 2:57 PM EST

Hi John - Happy new year. Thanks for these thoughts on letting go of our beliefs. For me, that also means giving up my belief or expectation that I will experience unity, ultimate reality, or our authentic nature. I am content to just let the experience come. I happened to be spending a little time with Barbara Ehrenreich's experience of a wild God today - can't say that I've experienced that myself but I recognize the authenticity of her experience. Most of all I am drawn to your notion of mystical consciousness vs mystical experience- being at home with the space of awareness in which experience unfolds.

- David

Feb 05, 2018 6:00 AM EST

Thank you.

- John Robinson

Jan 23, 2018 2:21 AM EST

I have already noticed this effect a long time ago, and just now I have decided to write in my blog about why we become more mystic, or conciousness aware when we get older. I have seen this phenomenon in many scientists, or actors, and of course in ordinary people (so to speak), and in me. So, I started to look up what others think about this matter, and I find you, and you have just written this article yesterday! What a coincidence I think!. I can not agree more with you. Sorry with my english, I'm not and english speaker

- Anonymous

Jan 25, 2018 3:00 AM EST

A beautiful poem. Thank you for sharing, and also for the commentary.

- erica rees