“Where do we find truth? Not in society and its institutions, not in organized religions and their dogmas, not in any self-help guru or outside spiritual authority. The hope for truth and ultimate freedom can’t come from anyone telling you what to do or believe, it can only come through your own creative self-understanding.” —The First And Last Truthby Krishnamurti
Humans are unusual, in that they are the only species that have a longer life expectancy, after their reproductive years, than before them. No one really knows why. The best explanation of this phenomenon, preserves the mystery that seems to abide in this strange aspect of human life — life is up to something — and although the ‘what’ is unknown now, it is something important — a trait that serves human existence, and similarly, the larger life that surrounds humanity.
What could be the reason? How could something as mysterious as this fact have escaped our attention for so long? What follows is my speculation, a guess, having to do with some of the unheralded potential that makes human life so gratifying and difficult. You see, I think we are not a very mature species yet, and it takes time to develop some of our most refined capabilities. Later life offers us entry into our most human sensitivities. They just don’t come on-line earlier.
It’s hard to say if this latter form of development is solely a result of Nature, or if our cultural inheritance is a factor, but the result is that human beings are endowed with traits that only manifest after a long time. The changes that time tends to implement are substantial enough that humans seem to be another species entirely. For instance, you have been exposed to the idea that humanity is simply an extension of the blood-thirsty ape — a violent species. But later in life, we humans are non-violent, much more prone towards relating with each other. Aging makes us mellower. In fact, it would be just as accurate to view us from the last quarter of life, and say, we are a collaborative species.
There is a turn that takes place during the latter part of life that is important, overlooked and confusing. Too many of us suffer from a lack of recognition of this turn and a failure to re-orient. From doing to being, from external orientation to internal, from producing in the world to producing in the self, the turn is like being dropped in a totally different world with a totally different way of living. I’ve called it a “through the looking glass” experience.
It is under these conditions that the total uniqueness of each member of our kind materializes. A friend calls this turn a “disorienting dilemma,” which I think it is. At the same time, it is a re-orienting opportunity that enables us to apply our creativity, and become ourselves. The latter part of life, the long last miles, the extended part, is the time for us to give birth to our own unique selves.
This has spiritual implications too. As Krishnamurti asserts, it is the time during which we can discover and fully occupy our own true nature. No one knows what each of us is going to realize and bring forth. Therefore, even the best, bow down to these manifestations of Mystery.
Sometimes it feels like we live too long. Bodies break down, colors fade, and our mind loses its sharpness, then what is within us begins to blossom. A lot of miles have to be travelled before the best part of us becomes most evident. And, it is only encountered within the rubble of earlier life. Confusing.
It is impossible to know why Life operates this way, but something quite amazing and miraculous gets spawned. A non-material being emerges that is a product of material life. Wow! The manifestation of a long, strange, and largely unexpected life appears. The miles suddenly take on a different hue.
