@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🧡 If you find benefit in my videos, consider supporting the channel by joining us on Patreon and get fun extras like exclusive videos, ad-free audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: www.patreon.com/dougsseculardharma 🙂 📙 You can find my book here: books2read.com/buddhisthandbook
@lindamclean8809 Жыл бұрын
To me it’s not so much that we grow old and die.........it’s the fact that human life is so short........
@anvilbrunner.2013 Жыл бұрын
@@lindamclean8809 Fourteen superfluous punctuation marks. A sign of psychosis or neurosis. You don't have a life. You are life. As a single rain drop falls from the clouds taking many circuitous routes & sustaining so many incarnations, returning to the ocean & back again at no given time but eventually always returning. So are you. Peace. Remember that if you were really small. The turkey would eat you.
@kieranjohnston7550 Жыл бұрын
One of the reasons the elderly become invisible, and get shunted away, is that we are messengers, reminders of what is down the road. Nevertheless, I try to be a goodwill ambassador for aging, and tell people that despite the straps, the pains and the limitations, old age, like every age, has its beautiful compensations, not the least of which is the contentment that comes from the lessening of some desires and the disappearance of others. And the realisation of our similarities: when we are young, we see all the differences between people; in old age, we see that we are all alike. There is great comfort in this humility.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Wonderful! Yes I think what you're showing is that with old age comes the gold of wisdom.
@kieranjohnston7550 Жыл бұрын
@@orange_330 “Thou hast neither youth nor age, but as it were an after dinner sleep dreaming on both.” S hakespeare, Measure for Measure. That just about fits your age, doesn’t it? Sometimes, especially when I’m in stillness, I have no idea how old I am. I’m sure you must feel that way sometimes, right?
@pooi-hoongchan8680 Жыл бұрын
Ageing and death equalises everybody, so why all the wars and fighting ??
@taleandclawrock2606 Жыл бұрын
Yes! The soul seems to have no age. As the physical urges recede, the beauty of the soul seems to become more the point .🥰
@chriskaplan6109 Жыл бұрын
Thank you for sharing this wisdom!
@jeffreyphillips4182 Жыл бұрын
My grandfather was the coolest old man I knew growing up. He had the most marvelous stories of his youth, but more than that he was accepting of me where my father wasn't. He just kinda seemed to me to be at peace with who he was and life itself. Still, I never really thought about getting old until I got there. I'm 74 now, have stage 4 cancer, have no idea how much longer I have but I'm ok with it. Death is another door to open into whatever lies beyond, if anything. Either or, I'm okay with it now. I feared death in my youth but not now. It's coming, might as well accept it...
@enchantederic3792 Жыл бұрын
I have persevered post-treatment, the works - from stage 4 lung cancer 8 years ago. I found it hardest, with low energy to find out anything of real value in actually healing after the perhaps heavy handed radiation. i am 59. Essiac Tea (? spelling), Laetrile B17 from peach pits (was illegal in the US until recently), and now I am hearing about pine needle tea with grape seed (one's in the forest, the other is at a heath food store) is what was developed for Chernobyl residents for their exposure. Those are natural supports should anyone not know about them. You can also just accept, as you said. I still have minor children, who's mom (much younger ...) has more than enough on her plate presently. Gently I will state - i found awareness quite early in life. I will share that that makes very little difference, even having no qualms as to transitioning, the suffering these past 8 years has been quite real. I would share that there is a peace, a golden peace inside always waiting. That i would hope everyone can find. Awareness does not seem to change suffering, you still must humanly cope and go right on through with it. and life.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Thanks for your comment, Jeffrey. All the best to you on your journey. 🙏
@daisuke6072 Жыл бұрын
@@enchantederic3792 God be with you.
@kirstenschreiber4189 Жыл бұрын
Jeffrey and Eric, you so beautifully shared. Thank you 🙏🏼
@AmericanStuff2024 Жыл бұрын
JeffreyPhillips: Rene Cassie, RN, in Canada, during her life received many referrals from physicians there who had nothing further to offer terminal cancer patients. Physicians sent them to her because the patients had nothing to lose. Rene Cassie provided them with a traditional Objiwa herbal tea. The immune system booster is sheep sorrel, a thin leafed lettuce that grows wild in some parts of North America. The other 3 herbs clean toxins from the blood. One is burdock. Rene Cassie, RN, was able to achieve some remissions of terminal cancer among her patients. Essiac or Cassie's tea is still available through health food stores. It comes in a dry version with instructions and a liquid version kept in brown glass. The dry tea is to be boiled for 20 minutes, then reboiled the next day for 20 minutes, IF the tea is to be stored. It is to be stored refrigerated and in brown glass out of sunlight. That is not superstition. The tea is nutrient rich and can get microbes growing in it if not kept sterile. One can brew it up and use it immediately, of course. I used it to stop sore throats and bronchitis. I don't know what the dose is. I only ever boiled a good pinch, maybe a tablespoon of rough cut vegetation at a time. I only brewed that once a day to drink in about 2 glasses of water. But that was for sore throat or bronchitis. You might try Essiac, also called Cassie's tea. It is a traditional Objiwa Native Canadian ''medicine.' Now such are termed 'folk remedies' or 'nutritional supplements.' You can certainly research her and the tea online. It always cured my winter sore throat by noon and my bronchitis in 3 days. See you on the other side--sometime.
@judypetree2589 Жыл бұрын
Your interpretation of the text was beautiful. Today is my 77th birthday and I do not feel old most of the time. However, I do get moments of anxiety, I say moments because I do not dwell on them. Time is passing but my own parents taught me to accept my age and do what you can do, and also what you want to. I've listened to philosophers who are going through the ageing process, and they have no answers except exactly what the Buddha says; accept yourself and be grateful to the process. I am grateful, I am proud to be here and still able to experience the new things we are finding out about the universe.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Wonderful and wise realization, thanks so much! 🙏
@raysurrealist Жыл бұрын
“The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.” Oscar Wilde
@beefandbarley Жыл бұрын
That is so on the money.
@nettewilson5926 Жыл бұрын
🤔 I don’t get it I think
@mygirldarby Жыл бұрын
@@nettewilson5926 Maybe it means that although our body is old, we still feel like the same young person we were inside.
@nettewilson5926 Жыл бұрын
@@mygirldarby that makes sense.
@francissmith59 Жыл бұрын
THIS OSCAR WILDE QUOTE SUMS UP MY PRESENT FEELINGS CONCERNING " OLD AGE " EXACTLY. MY SPIRIT AND EVEN MY MIND IS STILL VERY YOUTHFUL AND HOPEFULLY WISER.
@Davidiona Жыл бұрын
I am a man coming up to my 88th year in January. might I suggest that the first approach to the problems of old age and dying is to be one of compleate acceptance, to see through the ego then go for deep meditation.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏🙂
@Freedomnomad555 Жыл бұрын
Very nice Doug. The attempt to make the Buddha into a deity obscure the very message that he taught - that we, regular human being, can overcome sufferings and achieved enlightenment, just like him.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Yes, exactly so. 🙏
@chriskaplan6109 Жыл бұрын
Precisely! Insightful takeaway. I think you and Doug highlight this important aspect of the teachings.
@lah6739 Жыл бұрын
@@chriskaplan6109 Chris, I think Harryson Sukainto is being sarcastic when he says "Very nice Doug". What HS is saying is that Doug is contradicting what the Buddha was talking about. Doug is wrong. See my comment.
@lah6739 Жыл бұрын
Right on HS.
@AT-rw3ou Жыл бұрын
The Buddha didn’t become deified until the rise of mahāyāna buddhism, five centuries after the time of the Buddha, and it’s thought to attract followers. What Doug described is early Buddhism, as recorded in Agama. However, mahāyāna buddhism never deviate from the Buddha’s teaching.
@user-ru3zw6lz9h 5 ай бұрын
I'm only 34 but I recently developed an autoimmune disease that has disabled me in multiple ways. This video has given me much comfort. Yes, I am suffering from pain, but I don't need to add to it with my judgments and worries about what it means about me and my future. I don't need to avoid it, I can just acknowledge that this is what my life is like now. Everyone's body changes at some point. We all age. I shouldn't be unhelpfully worrying about my future any more than people should be worrying about aging. And I can still live an equanimous life and help the people around me, just as Buddha did when he was suffering from pain.
@DougsDharma 5 ай бұрын
Very glad to hear it’s helpful to you. 🙏
@yacovmitchenko1490 Жыл бұрын
Good content. I myself never saw the Buddha as someone who didn't SUFFER old age. It doesn't surprise me that he responded in a very human way to the ravages of old age. But the point in all this is that he was clear-minded, meaning that his physical pain was not exacerbated through psychological suffering. In other words, although he was in physical pain, he accepted it and all fear, all anxiety that typically accompanies old age had been removed.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@johnshaw9396 Жыл бұрын
Thanks for this Doug. Nice Summary. I too have turned 80 and have a bad back but meditation and Dharma practise over time has brought about an acceptance of it all.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Wonderful to hear, John. Thanks.
@MundaSquire Жыл бұрын
Doug, I even ceased to be amazed at your take on the teachings of the Buddha. It so well shows how the teachings are grounded in the reality of existence rather than in metaphysical flights of fancy or speculation. It really brings home the importance of the dharma of the path in early Buddhism. Though later works such as The Heart Sutra have a certain beauty to them, for me they never quite captured the essential grounding in daily experience. Thank you so much for what you do.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
You're very welcome! Yes I find them inspirational as well. 🙏
@AngloFrancoDane Жыл бұрын
I am in my 60s and the body is starting to fail. This is very real to me. It does make the Buddha more meaningful and real to me.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Yes, I think a lot of the dharma is most useful as we grow older and wiser.
@josephsf2452 Жыл бұрын
just stop telling that story about your body is starting to fail. The ONLY reason why that could ever happen is because you're thinking thoughts that are in opposition to who you really are. Your body is following the train of your thoughts.
@livondiramerian6999 Жыл бұрын
Love, compassion, kindness, & meditation lessen sufferings.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@philipstachyra5676 Жыл бұрын
I find it more inspirational and useful to reflect on the Buddha as a human who suffered and ultimately grew old and faced mortality. I agree that it does a disservice to pretend this did not happen.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@KumariKumari-fw7nc Жыл бұрын
Why is it that we don't have a picture of Buddha in old age.. All Buddha statues are of young Buddha..
@that1monk Жыл бұрын
Even as a Mahayana Buddhist monk, I try to ground the understandings of Dharma in the reality of our human experience, such as the Buddha being a human just like you and me. What you refer to as the hagiography of Buddhist stories, I consider and teach to be metaphors. They point to various truths within the mind and are a certain way of understanding, but we are still all humans.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Sure, each of us will come to the stories with our own interpretations and backgrounds. 🙏
@tranquil2706 6 ай бұрын
For my elderly ears, this was wise and comforting in a existentially realist way. Buddhism offers a positive way to live, but only after you face reality. Its for grownups, that’s for sure! Thank you, Doug.
@DougsDharma 6 ай бұрын
Yes I think the realism is comforting in its own way.
@kitkat6959 Жыл бұрын
great video. important to remember that even the Buddha had to deal with hardships of the body and was not some mystical being
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Yes, exactly so. 🙏
@snakespeak 6 ай бұрын
Thank you, doctor. As a practitioner, I appreciate your elucidation of the path developed by the Buddha as one that a mortal envisioned to guide us through this natural experience.
@DougsDharma 6 ай бұрын
You're most welcome. 🙏
@jackgoldman1 Жыл бұрын
People die every day and we live our lives as if we are immortal. This is the greatest wonder of the world.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@vyderka Жыл бұрын
I find this video one of the best of yours and one of the most wonderfully informative lectures on Buddhism I have ever come across. You raised the bar very high with this one. Congratulations and many many thanks for your work!
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
My pleasure, vyderka. Glad you enjoyed. 🙏😊
@chriskaplan6109 Жыл бұрын
Well-said!
@samgamgee7384 Жыл бұрын
"What a drag it is growing old." - Buddha
@Cynthia-uf9ro Жыл бұрын
Mick Jagger is almost 80 but doesn't seem to be suffering too much. 🕺
@upstatenewyork Жыл бұрын
As someone approaching 70, I agree with your perception of this Doug and appreciate the video. More on this subject please! Thank you.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@kraz007 Жыл бұрын
Always helpful
@taleandclawrock2606 Жыл бұрын
How lovely to find older human beings addressed, inspired and inspiring in this video and these comments! It amazes me continually how i am overlooked, treated as irrelevent, a past-tense person, because i have some silver hair, and my back is a little stiffer. There are a wealth of wisdoms i could teach to any interested, but this unhealthy culture driven by greedy and exploitative elites, has over the decades exacted so much damage to bonds and continuity of family, community, inheritance of lands and traditions, that we are all fragmented socially, traumatised personally, lonely, vulnerable, financially stressed, insecure, frightened and trying not to resent the absence of help from generations we provided but whom have been indoctrinated and deprived, forced to abandon all old ways in order to survive.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@ClarenceCreekwater Жыл бұрын
Some say getting old sucks. I say getting old is wonderful, being old sucks.
@community1854 10 ай бұрын
Love you Doug! How well u explain these complex principles in a way it relates to our daily lives! Thanks you! Immensely grateful for the knowledge!
@DougsDharma 10 ай бұрын
Wonderful! You're very welcome. 🙏
@_efault Жыл бұрын
Very well put Doug. I think your nice summary of these texts pairs nicely with my favourite verse of the Tao Te Ching: The Master gives himself up to whatever the moment brings. He knows that he is going to die, and he has nothing left to hold on to: no illusions in his mind, no resistances in his body. He doesn’t think about his actions; they flow from the core of his being. He holds nothing back from life; therefore he is ready for death, as a man is ready for sleep after a good day’s work.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@nannue Жыл бұрын
It's very refreshing to hear the interpretation of the Buddha's old texts and verses through someone rather than a typical Buddist monks in English. Nicely presented.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
My pleasure! 🙏
@pchabanowich Жыл бұрын
Even with this share of dukka, and perhaps because of it, this passage from when the mature body begins to decline through to this 'elder-hood' onward is a wonder - the straps of which The Buddha spoke are a perfect reflection on the feeling; I relate. Why the human-ness of that remarkable being is overlooked is a mystery. 💐
@mariamercedesmarquez1759 Жыл бұрын
Thank you so much again for this very useful material. This is the first time I get to hear about what was happening to the Buddha at that age. I shall be very pleased to share it.
@patriciamcnamara9821 Жыл бұрын
I'm 75 now and am not aware of age until I look in the mirror. I have been very lucky with my general health. Only now is arthritis becoming a companion. I tell all people as old and older, that we have something young people do not..... We will NEVER die young. I love my life, my partner, my two dogs and the stray cat who adopted us.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@marcijlo Жыл бұрын
Doug I appreciate this video, thank you. At 67 and feeling still good my eyesight is failing me, the aging process! I am experiencing Dukkha at the moment and mourn the loss of my eyesight. Please take care!
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
You as well! All the best. 🙏
@KumariKumari-fw7nc Жыл бұрын
Why,what happened to your eyesight? I am also 67 had retinal detachment surgery at 57.. Couldn't work after that..
@mariamercedesmarquez1759 Жыл бұрын
Thank you so much for your commentaries on aging. I am in Caracas, where I have been in charge of the KTC, the Tibetan Buddhist Center for more than forty years.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@emmanuelweinman9673 Жыл бұрын
We sometimes forget that our heroes and people who we see as one with All, are also human like us. Honestly, it just makes their feats even more impressive if we truly see them as human like us. It also shows us that the same All is within us All 🙏🏼
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@faceinthecrowd5810 Жыл бұрын
I am 65 now. I continue to participate in most of the same activities that I enjoyed when I was 25. 30 years ago I stopped all drinking of alcohol and other mind altered drugs. There was a shift from thinking I was a victim to seeing that I could be a conqueror. Since that shift in my Spirit I approach my circumstances knowing that the path forward is a blend of part change and part expectance. We have more control than we may think of who we live as, we can reinvent many pieces of our daily life. We can also choose to not guide ourselves toward our desires, or allow our desires to be a flat complacency of getting old with no chance of a rally. I know that old age is what if I’m lucky , I will have and the limitations are real. Even so I choose for now to continue to push myself to greater levels, to continued seeking of the experiences I love. All of this can crash in a moment, but till then I follow my Spirit’s call to action.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@13c11a Жыл бұрын
Hi Doug, I am grateful that the Buddha demonstrated the universality of aging and death. I am quite old now myself and it is good to accept that dissolution is the inevitable end of every physical organism in samsara. A very good lecture.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Thanks so much, Nowhere Man. 🙏
@nexstory Жыл бұрын
Initially, when I see a person my age (now 77), particularly those I haven't seen in a while, I notice their wrinkled faces, slightly stooped postures, loss or greying of hair, a different pitch or cadence to their voice, and so forth, and when contrasted with my memories of them, I am saddened that they have grown old. Then, somehow, in the very next moment, when my eyes readjust and we start to converse, they reconstitute in my mind's eye and become the exact same people I had known before. On occasion, if what was ailing them has taken its toll, still the essence of who they were, are, and probably will be, continues to be present, even though I have a strong sense that in a short time, they will pass away. I am reconciled to the fact that I, too, will pass into the Great Beyond. In this moment, it causes no anxiety or concern. It is a fact. As such, I have reduced the transition to four choices; I will either approach my end with a) curiosity, b) fear: c) fear and curiosity, or d)....?? However, it ends is how it will end. "Far beyond delusive thinking..".
@carolinamoonbeam Жыл бұрын
@Ken Cohen I experienced that confused lack of recognition of my Leaving Certificate classmates at our 25th anniversary reunion. I arrived early to the hotel lobby, looking around for my classmates to no avail. All I could see were these groups of middle-aged women coming through the doors. It was only when the Peter Pan of our class arrived and started to greet everyone that what you said happened. The years suddenly melted away and, one by one, the faces became familiar once more. and the middle aged women became youthful again. A lot of that youthful appearance came from the feeling of joy from the spirits of the teenagers we had been which bubbled up within us all.
@chriskaplan6109 Жыл бұрын
Well expressed, thank you for sharing your perspective 🙏
@carolinamoonbeam Жыл бұрын
@@chriskaplan6109 This growing older and wiser business is most interesting. We seem to be losing the very things that make us ‘us’: our youth, looks, vigour and sometimes even our health and well-being, yet the process is often so freeing and transformative at a deeper level as, when the surface stuff starts to go, the compassionate part of us correspondingly deepens, oddly enough even towards ourselves.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Great stories! Yes it's so interesting how perception works ...
@carolinamoonbeam Жыл бұрын
@@DougsDharma You are helping us to think so much more profoundly that we may well end up giving you a new name: ‘Doug Deeper’!
@mariamercedesmarquez1759 Жыл бұрын
Right now, having passed away one of my sisters two days ago, once again I find these moments as extraordinary opportunities to reflect on how I am dealing with this subject and what can I find that could be of help to the practitioners.
@Johnoines 5 ай бұрын
I find it much easier to practice now that I'm older (73) than I did when I was younger and more active in my world.
@DougsDharma 5 ай бұрын
Great!
@shashimenon1000 Жыл бұрын
Doug, I appreciate the way you discussed these matters. We, as humans, tend to deify too easily....and then feel let down by the evident vulnerabilities of the objects of deification. Suffice it to say that the expressions of the 'Enlightened one' on the issues of Dukkha being recognized and dealt with in old age, is a great example for us all to live and experience life, as it is. Enlightenment helps. But Death doesn't give a hoot and we can all expect no different.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Exactly so, I think of the path as at least in large part a confrontation with death.
@KumariKumari-fw7nc Жыл бұрын
How we die is important...
@enchantederic3792 Жыл бұрын
I can state from first person on this. "Helps" is a good way to put it. :-) Blessings.
@jennabaram6223 Жыл бұрын
It’s so interesting that later translators tried to write away any record of the physical experience of growing old- when that was part of basis of the story of how and why he Siddhartha became the Buddha.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Yes, it is interesting isn't it!
@cassandraseven3478 Жыл бұрын
Similar tampering with the record of "Christianity" which now has most "Christians" believing that Jesus came to save us all and the "only way to the Father" and we need to get saved now. They mean well but they'll find out eventually. He came to show us what is necessary to "overcome the world". The doctrine of reincarnation was part of the canon until it was removed by Justinian under pressure from the truly diabolic Theodora (see Asha Logos doc on her if you care to) in the 6th C AD. A channel called The 144000 did a series: By The Emperor's Command: Banning Reincarnation! going quickly through the many allusions to and assumptions of what remain of the doctrine in the OT and NT.
@63phillip Жыл бұрын
Buddha was just a person, even though he was very enlightened he was just like us. We can all become Buddha, and we will grow old just like he did.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏
@libbyholt3863 Жыл бұрын
This was helpful. Also, thank you SO much for not using music. Most who do have it entirely too loud. As you might have guessed, my aging ears appreciate quiet more & more. Lol.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
My pleasure, Libby. In a handful of my earliest videos I used music, but haven't done so for years.
@jackrice2770 Жыл бұрын
Maurice Chevalier, the well-known French performer, was interviewed on his 80th birthday. A reporter asked him how he felt about being 80, to which he replied, "Well, considering the alternative, pretty good!" I'm not quite 80, but I've used the line myself. And, I should add, it seems to me the whole point of Buddhism is to accept -all- facets of being a living creature, including death. Sure, we seem to instinctively put a negative value judgement on death...after all, it lasts a long time...but we don't fear being born, do we? I'm certainly not aware of suffering before I was born, so I don't expect to suffer after I'm dead. I'm no more happy about it than the next person, but since no one has told me how to 'beat the rap', acceptance seems to be the only route to peace of mind. And non-acceptance is fine too, you'll die anyway, nobody says you have to be happy about it.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Well said!
@dorianphilotheates3769 Жыл бұрын
Ι always felt a special connection to my elders, and have engaged widely in the care of the aged for well nigh a century now. I hope that youngsters will continue to be as gracious when I grow old.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Thank you so much for your work. That is wonderful and difficult. 🙏
@dorianphilotheates3769 Жыл бұрын
@@DougsDharma - 🙂
@jacobmills7289 Жыл бұрын
I accidentally shot my hand with a 3 1/2" nail gun today, I wanted to let you know I found the Ananda quote about the Buddha aging is extremely helpful right now. I watched this video be'forehand'.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Ouch!! Glad the video was able to help in some small way, and hope you are getting better!
@chriskaplan6109 Жыл бұрын
Insightful and well-spoken. Thanks for this excellent dharma talk, Doug. Very good video on a topic of some difficulty to accept and be with.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
My pleasure, Chris! 🙏
@gregoryjackson7903 Жыл бұрын
super video Doug, thanks! Love this presentation of the Buddha.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@jamesalance1 Жыл бұрын
Thank you. I am so grateful to have found your channel 🙏
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Welcome! Glad to have you here. 🙏😊
@Jsmithyy Жыл бұрын
Don't worry about being old just be happy you are!
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@lah6739 Жыл бұрын
Buddha was a human being, a man. He became a Buddha (which is a potential for all of us human beings) but he still had a body, which aged. . . and died. A deity and a "perfected" human being are two different things. Purifying the mind completely can only be done in human being; no the form e.g. animal can attain this. Hence it being referred to as a "precious human life". The body dies but the consciousness continues on. When we die all "we" take with "us" is "our" consciousness consisting of every moment of every action of our body/speech/mind from the current life and all the other endless lives we have had. This stream of consciousness gets reborn into the next life . . . and so on.
@josephfroton2339 Жыл бұрын
Thank you Douglas! You are truly a Bodhisattva in your scholarly knowledgeable understanding & transmission of truths concerning the Buddha's humanity, life & teachings. Your words dissolve obscurations about "the Buddha" as Lord Buddha & remind me that Lord Buddha was both an ordinary being while simultaneously also a super extra-ordinary being! Blessings to you Sir!
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Thanks so much Joseph. 🙏
@bajuszpal172 Жыл бұрын
Many thanks Mr DOUG, something new to me about the old age of Buddha living long but with deteriorating body, but not probably soul. An this is also a lesson I am drawing from the Buddha as an old person embracing the the life, accepting the plusses and minuses. Excellent, Sir, many thanks again, good health.67, retired teacher.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
My pleasure! All the best to you. 🙏
@marlonlo9661 Жыл бұрын
You forget to say that Buddha's view provides a way to be free from old age and other forms of suffering. The example of himself suffering from old age is not to show that we must embrace old age but to not cling on to our human body as a true source of happiness. Because it will fail us in the end. He taught that freedom from old age and other forms of suffering can only be achieved if we break the cycles of rebirth through understanding our mind(meditation) by applying Dharma. For further explanation read "How to solve our human problems?" "Joyful Pathful of Good Fortune" and "The New Heart of Wisdom" by Kelsang Gyatso.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@5DNRG Жыл бұрын
I touched on buddhism in the early 70s when I was hanging out with Steppenwolf guys (Kay & his drummer), but I could not get behind the materialism aspect... so I found my Guru Maharaj Ji and never looked back.
@mariamercedesmarquez1759 Жыл бұрын
I am eighty years old and have a chronic back problem which gets more and more serious. Nevertheless, thanks to the dharma this does not go beyond being a certain physical limitation.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Yes it can be a great source of help and wisdom.
@jmahalekshmymenon9309 Жыл бұрын
Excellent video!!🙏 I may humbly add:🙏 Deification of our Mahatmas in India-born and in some unorganised, indigenous religions is uniquely pragmatic and remains true to Mother Nature and Her laws..... Hence the body itself is seen as the perishable part of Nature and therefore subject to all the effects of Nature as any material thing will, however great be the soul (atma) occupying that body.. Thus their TRUE/ informed followers tend to accept and even welcome the realities of aging with equanimity and calmness... as part of the karmic cycle of the body. Hence, also the name 'mahatma' for our Gurus with the emphasis being on the greatness or mahatmyam of Their self-realised 'atma,' the more subtle, blissful anandamayakosham, (the existing locus of 'anand' meaning non-ephemeral, nondual, and causeless 'bliss' in every being, which each strives to realise), and not on the grosser (sthhool) part of His being namely, the body or the annamayakosha, constantly reacting with the material world of 'maya' which provides the cause for experiencing duality in the form of bouts of ephemeral pain and pleasure.
@youxine Жыл бұрын
Thanks for this very interesting video and discussion on the ageing process of the Buddha Shakyamuni 🙏
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
My pleasure!
@craigwillms61 Жыл бұрын
Very interesting. Not having any knowledge of these concepts, I am learning that there is a word/concept for what I'm feeling being officially in old age. My health has not been good, and I feel these things are accelerated for me, and I'm trying to make sense of my life... Thanks for this video.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
My pleasure, Craig. 🙏
@n0surrenda Жыл бұрын
A great secular analysis, thank you. What you have discussed is consistent with how Theravada Buddhism is taught in the West by such teachers as Ajahn Sumedho, Ajahn Bramali and Ajahn Brahm'. These great teachers consistently remind us that Mr Gautama was born a human and died a human. Like everyone else, the Buddha was born from the womb, ate, defecated, urinated, got sick, aged and died. In fact, his death was reportedly painful and messy due to possible good poisoning. Despite his apparent capacity to enter the Jhana's, he experienced pain like every other mortal person. I personally do not know any Theravada Buddhists who believe the Buddha was anything other than an enlightened human being. Of course, these aspects of the Buddha's teachings should be understood in the context of the Noble Eight-Fold Path, particularly Right View - all conditioned phenomena are impermanent. Aging is the epitome of impermanence! Keep up the great work Doug.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Thanks, Chris! 🙏
@ppfuchs Жыл бұрын
I knew the Buddhist scholar Masao Abe, and what I loved the most from his observations was when he trenchantly said that we should never just speak of "living." We should only speak of "living-dying."
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Ah, interesting way to look at it!
@kachinalajones8975 Жыл бұрын
My grandma said when you get old you get everything but pretty being mindful to keep open as a child and embrace your innocence
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@AT-rw3ou Жыл бұрын
Doug mentioned the pleasure often experienced in deep meditation. The Buddha cautioned against getting attached to this experience, for it’s still way short of enlightenment. Getting attached to it is a form of Upādāna and it becomes an obstacle to the end goal.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
That's right, it follows from other things he says, I mentioned a couple in this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ep-CmreCtdSrZHU.html. Though I don't know of a place where the Buddha explicitly cautioned against attachment to deep meditation. If you do, I'd be interested in the citation.
@stevekoehn1675 Жыл бұрын
Thank you for getting to the core and truth of the matter.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@corujariousa Жыл бұрын
Thank you for the video. The concern of the ones who wrote so many scriptures of the many special human beings that came to Earth (I.e: Buddha, Jesus) in making them appear divine and even hyper-human; hence, immune to human realities is something that I always thought irrational and unfortunate. I focus on the good teachings. Knowing those profets had to manage around our human challenges and how they did it only make them more especial in my eyes.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Yes, to me as well.
@otorishingen8600 Жыл бұрын
But...but..some old people can be soo funny, cute ... or understanding and wise ☺️ Thank you for this lecture 🙏
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@paulinecoburn181 Жыл бұрын
How patronising!
@gra6649 Жыл бұрын
"Getting old sucks." "Zen Master, Albert Low." PS, I love that the cars you showed were Edsels. Not sure why, but it made me laugh.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
😄
@betacam235 Жыл бұрын
The Edsel at 12.11 looks like a nice basis for restoration... ;~) I was interested to discover that the current Dalai llama enjoys tinkering with old cars, also with clocks and watch mechanisms. I find engineering related stuff keeps one foot firmly fixed in the material universe....
@fingerprint5511 Жыл бұрын
Ajahn Sumedho said it was understanding and really understanding the First Noble Truth which helped him understand reality because of the American idealism he had no idea he was brainwashed with, it was causing untold suffering. Thanks Doug 🙏🏼
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Yes, good point.
@SophieBird07 Жыл бұрын
To make light of a heavy subject, we are all on the same boat, just that some of us have been on the boat longer, so we must enjoy, or at least appreciate the trip as best we can. None of us are getting off alive. So it’s best to work together.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
True!
@xiaomaozen Жыл бұрын
Unfortunately (blind) hagiography and worship often destroy or prevent/avert a deep and thorough understanding. But fortunately we have you, Doug! 😁🙏
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Ha! Thanks xiao mao. I'm far from the only one though! 😊
@rahulratan0 Жыл бұрын
Mamo Buddhaya 🙏🇮🇳
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@deborahhebblethwaite1865 Жыл бұрын
Why is the alternative to old age horrible. We all die. I do not find it that horrible. I am a senior and am looking forward to another experience after this body returns to dust. 🇨🇦
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@akc1739 Жыл бұрын
I’m with you on that! Thanks for the comment. When I leave this body behind, I fully anticipate a positive experience. I can’t really imagine it, but it excites me. Just thinking about how many former people there’ve been on this Earth who have also taken their turn crossing over is astounding to me!
@nothingsacred8684 6 ай бұрын
I really appreciate this. When I first looked into Buddhism, I found in frustrating that even some of the Theravada sutras were written by later monks who credited Buddha. I know people say it’s a humility thing, but it comes across more as arrogance than humility to me. I wish there were a Nikaya of only sutras that are suspected to be historically accurate
@DougsDharma 6 ай бұрын
Deciding which suttas are historically accurate is a process of deep scholarship, and always will be a matter of judgment and some controversy. There are a lot of grey areas.
@stevesinclair4159 Жыл бұрын
"Old age is a shipwreck" - Charles de Gaulle
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Indeed!
@johnwhodat8135 Жыл бұрын
We're spiritual beings and this body a vessel to experience this so call physical life. Once this body is used up the spirit searches another.
@CT-vl3iu Жыл бұрын
No point in thinking and wasting time on these realities of life. We just need to get on with life ..appreciate the life that we got. Live our lives right without harming anyone in anyways. We cannot change ageing and other factors...but all of us can live our lives as good human beings. That's all what matters.
@num3willie Жыл бұрын
If you are diagnosed with dementia please know in advance that this approach to accepting aging may offer no succor. You may become trapped in a paranoid nightmare in which you imagine your best friends and family to be thieving tormentors, lose the ability to control your movements, and wake often in the middle of the night feeling lost and abandoned. The past six years have been this way for my mother.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Yes, these are very sad and difficult illnesses, particularly for friends, family, and caretakers.
@rosaspanjol673 Жыл бұрын
The older we get,the more thankful we should be with God that allow us to live longer than other people who die much younger than us🙏
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Wow. And what about those other people?
@Dopendekhang Жыл бұрын
When I was young boy sometimes I used to think of death and it makes feel so sad and scared. I didn't see anyone immortal. But sometimes I used to feel like may be I am exceptional case. That after few years may be I won't aged further and live forever young and immortal. But now seeing all the process of ageing that's happening in my body over the year I am confirmed my death is inevitable and that m not exceptional 😀😀😀
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@ryanvancil1304 Жыл бұрын
Thanks so much for posting Doug, and providing a thoughtful and accessible platform for these teachings. One thought on the Ananda story and commenters - I'm no Buddhist scholar, and your view is likely correct - but perhaps we could spin it as the following: The central teaching seems to be that the Buddha cautioned us against being repulsed by age because this is being caught in the illusion that we are not part of that same suffering process. Ananda could see that even the Buddha was subject to old age (and that therefore there is no escape from experiencing this physical process). Perhaps the commentators were saying that only Ananda could see this because the others (whom they say could/did not see this) were caught in another illusion - the deification of the Buddha. So rather than being an anomaly, Ananda's view is the example of right view? Fun to think about all this - thank you again!
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Ha! That's an interpretation that hadn't occurred to me. I don't think that's what the commentators would have had in mind, though it does make sense! 😄
@johnmonk3381 Жыл бұрын
Excellent video and thank you for making it. Enlightened beings aren't special or excepted beings
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏😊
@seanstehura7179 Жыл бұрын
I'm a healthy 80 year old who has no problem growing old. Young people are facing the horrors of Climate Chaos. I don't wants to be around to witness the collapse of everything in nature I love.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
It is very sad.
@mattgoodmangoodmanlawnmowi2454 Жыл бұрын
The recognition that to uphold Buddhist principles, the follower must become a warrior monk. This gave rise to Ch’an and then Zen, Buddhist traditions.
@william6084 Жыл бұрын
Life's ticking away Doug, keep reading, it'll be over in no time
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Too true ...
@carmenc8103 Жыл бұрын
I also love Thag. 1034-36 when Ananda (aged as the Buddha ) is grieving the loss of the Buddha, he takes Refuge in mindfulness of the body....
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Ah, interesting!
@canitbu6217 10 ай бұрын
2023 Sep 28. Very "enlightening" to hear this now. I've heard it before. Read re Ananda, this very passage. Was much younger then, in the 1960's. It struck me then, but not as now. How hard it is to talk of this with a young person, maybe 13 years old, when insight as this reveals would be perhaps so profound throughout adolescence and beyond. The encounter now makes me feel very young indeed, though age surrounds me like midday sunshine in the desert.
@DougsDharma 10 ай бұрын
🙏😊
@slister45 Жыл бұрын
Old age is not for the weak or faint-hearted.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏
@rossmann611 Жыл бұрын
on my lap lays my aging cat. i watch her grow thin and weak, apparently confused. it is difficult to witness this inevitability that i very much FEEL happening to me as well. what is this life, who am i, what is my own consciousness, slipping away into abstractions of a self i no longer am. this is the natural unfolding, for all creatures born into this life, simply embrace what is, in every moment, is to live life to its fullest.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏
@marka2188 Жыл бұрын
An excellent video. Thank you. Just found this channel and already subscribed. Also read the forward to your latest book and planning to buy it. I really appreciate your efforts to clarify beliefs about Buddha and his teachings using suttas - I fully agree that Sutta pitaka (first 4 nikayas and parts of the 5th) has the truth. The issue is interpretation and due to this challenge most have built a Superman out of Buddha. And doing so they have blocked their access to the truth.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Wonderful, thanks and welcome aboard!
@hammersaw3135 Ай бұрын
I agree with the Buddha about aging, at 10 minutes, curse it lol. Those whose lives were cut short were indeed spared of this pain of slow decay.
@DougsDharma Ай бұрын
Yes, aging is part of dukkha …
@phtoed Жыл бұрын
yes through deep spiritual awareness one continues on, impermanence of all things
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
🙏
@zacharycat603 Жыл бұрын
So much for the so-called "golden years". have yet to meet a single aged person who called them that without sarcasm.
@paulwheeler6609 Жыл бұрын
To feel joy, it is nearly inescapable to suffer some form of youthful vanity. The Buddha himself admits to his own joy in youth. Being older now, I cannot prejudice the young for enjoying the physical attributes of youth and its accompanying desires. The trick is to not be swallowed up in them, for they will end. And their ending will be the beginning of new enjoyments of the mind and perception. It's a journey. It seems death is, in a way, the ultimate comfort. I don't remember who said this but "dying is completely safe." Quantum sense.
@jenniferfleming5644 Жыл бұрын
“Dying is completely safe” was from Ram Dass recounting an experience with his guru
@paulwheeler6609 Жыл бұрын
@@jenniferfleming5644 Thanks Jennifer. Merry Christmas.
@jenniferfleming5644 Жыл бұрын
@@paulwheeler6609 Merry Christmas to you too!
@mvann5 Жыл бұрын
Very good, clear presentation. As a as old person with no family and friends as a result of illnesd, and my limitations, how to feel a part of something? Loneliness is killing me, literally on some level. How to find my 'tribe' at this age? Was healthy at 60. At 70 very deficit in many ways. Thx.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
My pleasure. Yes, loneliness can be a problem. I actually did a video on that topic recently if you haven't seen it: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kKtkmNZk383Rf58.html
@middlewayers Жыл бұрын
I have understood the meaning of lifting the crossbar, its about the crossbar that is put on horses and ox for attaching a cart.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
That makes sense.
@oldstudent2587 Жыл бұрын
There is a big difference between knowing you will decline and die, and confronting it. I disagree that the Buddha's statement about death crushing all underfoot is the statement of someone uncomfortable with what is happening. It reflects someone who has confronted his age. An example: People trained for emergency medicine, learn that, "Denial is not a river in Egypt." Meaning that one of the symptoms of a life-threatening event (the most common example is a heart event) is denial. To the point where one hears someone actually say, "I don't think it's a heart attack," and one immediately suspects that it is one. But when someone so trained has a life-threatening event of their own, and the medical person treating them says so, it's like, "Oh!" Because they didn't recognize it because they too will go through denial when it happens. When I was told I had a terminal illness, I said, "Oh," and nothing else. The doctor said, "That's not what people normally do when I say that." But my thought was, "It's happening to me just like it does to everybody else. This is what this feels like. I didn't figure it out because Denial is not a river in Egypt."
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
That's right, it's so easy to fall into denial. All the best on your journey, I hope you are able to have ease through the rest of your days. 🙏
@mkcozzens Жыл бұрын
I was hoping for a middle ground - neither hagiography nor dismal, but that the Buddha found some sort of peace with aging. This was pretty depressing!
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Well I think he did find peace with it, but as with all things, it's complicated. 😊
@AT-rw3ou Жыл бұрын
The Buddha understands Pratītyasamutpāda en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prat%C4%ABtyasamutp%C4%81da. It’s a little like The Serenity Prayer but deeper. He accepts but doesn’t resign to it. He sees it as one of the parameters of living and seeks to do his work without regrets.
@margaretcampbell2681 Жыл бұрын
We all do it
@alsindtube Жыл бұрын
Very relatable, thank you!
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
My pleasure!
@mickymantle3233 Жыл бұрын
If something is inevitable. It's not worth worrying about.
@DougsDharma Жыл бұрын
Good advice for sure, and yet here we are!
@robertevans2026 Жыл бұрын
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