The new New Age

The new old age is also the new New Age -- having supplanted both -- as the real nature of new.  Otherwise, it is just the old being called the "new" -- when it is just the same ol' thing.  That used to fool a lot of people -- deceived by a word, and not the actual fact.  Increasingly, that is what the new age does -- integrate the new with the old -- so all that remains, is the new -- and present reality.

By "old," we now mean the world that used to exist before the turn of the century -- when though it was anticipated with great trepidation -- was lost just as "1984," was denied happening.  The world became "1984," but then became the 21st century -- or the new millennium, although the world did not end in the way many thought it would.  Rather, the new just came into being -- and did not have to kill off the old.

It is enough, just not to give it new life -- by repeating it as the way things are -- because they are wholly different now.  Comparisons to the past, keeps those memories alive -- along with its knowledge, which is of the past.  Discovering the truth of the moment, does not reference the old for that understanding -- but seeks to understand the present as it is unfolding.  The mind discovering the new, has no preconceived notion of knowing what it is -- which is the mind of the past, mired in the past.

Previously, every "old" generation thought it was their responsibility and duty to pass on the old ways of thinking and doing -- as though somehow, they were superior to the new -- always.  If nothing else, they became defenders of the status quo -- to keep things the same as they always had been -- at least in their own lifetimes.  But a few, and then the many, began to question whether that made any sense at all -- when it was understood that the truly new, supplanted and included everything that was known before -- in the present.

Unlike previous times, it was admitted that nobody really knew "everything," and far more needed to be discovered, than had previously been known -- especially when things didn't work out so well with the old (past) understanding.  Instead, there is always uncertainty -- in which each has to discover for themselves what is the truth -- in their own experience.  That was previously dismissed as the anecdotal -- or individual experience, that varied from one to another -- which was never allowed previously.  Each was only a cog like every other cog in the great machine of society.

Individual means indivisible or whole.  It is the basic quantum of reality.  It is the one meaning total.  That is the foundation of statistics, and great numbers -- but each is not simply a part of reality, but the whole of reality, for particular individuals.  Everyone does not die of heart disease -- but some people do.  That should be of great concern to those who will, but less so to those who won't, and are more predisposed to other vulnerabilities -- that each discovers as they live their lives.  It is the same way with  abilities and talents.  Properly done, it takes a lifetime to discover, and develop -- and is the meaning and purpose of those lives.

How well each does -- determines their success in life -- in developing the mastery of that life -- from beginning to end.  In this, the game is not over half way through -- or after 20 or 40 years, but lasts the whole lifetime.  Most, in the past, haven't done that so well -- beginning to lose that vital life force at 60, 50, and even 40 -- when they began to think it was all downhill from here, with no further worlds to conquer.

That is the great problem of these times -- the old old age.  It is becoming increasingly apparent that that continuance, is not sustainable -- because eventually, we get to the point that everybody has to be dedicated to caregiving everybody else, and nobody has the time or energy to care for themselves -- which means that things just get worse, and can never get better.  But life has to get better -- or it will cease to exist.  That is the self-evident truth.  Things must get better -- and not simply repeat themselves, as they have always done before.

That is just an illusion.  It was not always that way before. That was just the old culture saying so -- hoping to perpetuate itself for eternity.  But history does not repeat itself -- except for the defenders of the status quo saying so.  Even as they do so, they will deny that that is what they are doing -- preserving the past -- through their songs, habits, compulsions, and dysfunctions of fragmented and disintegrating lives.

Their problems are always "outside" themselves rather than the very core of their being -- internally.  That is where most problems are -- and so can never be solved.  But if they are the problem, then they can be the solution -- just in the understanding of that.  That is the problem -- the understanding of it.  Properly understood, there is no problem.  That is particularly the problem of the old old age.  Previous generations did not realize that everything they do -- becomes them.  You can't do everything wrong, and think that the outcome will be good.  You have to do all the right things -- to produce a more favorable outcome.

The wrong exercises (practice) won't work; they aren't working.  But one has their whole life, to find out what works for them -- and failing that, or failing to try, dooms one to failure, and ultimately (premature) extinction.  There is no guarantee of success -- but that is the chance one has to take, and nothing is more important to do.  Then the prognosis for a whole generation becomes better than we could imagine -- only knowing what we know now.

What changes that -- and everything, is discovering what works -- and wholly living in that new reality, and not just arguing the old against the new.  That is totally counterproductive -- and won't solve any problems.  That's how the world changed in the 21st century -- leaving behind most not born into it.  Old age has always been this failure -- and not greater successes that surely must be more possible given greater opportunities and advantages.

Beyond people living longer, they are living better than was even imagined for the most privileged twenty years ago.  Every twenty years is better than the previous.  So how does one take advantage of that opportunity?  Not by merely living longer, but by living as best they can -- which is not being stupid.  That a few think that that is what is meant, shows their lack of understanding -- that the good is not bad, and other (self-)contradictions.  The good is that which is intelligent to do.  That solves all problems -- and not simply repeating what hasn't worked before -- hoping for a different outcome.

Life doesn't work very well that way.