Mature Age

Mature age begins at thirty-five years of age and ends at fifty-six years of age. During the mature age, a man must know how to govern his home and how to orient his children, since in formal life every man of mature age becomes the head of a family.

Thus, the man who did not establish his home and make his fortune during youth and mature age will no longer do so; regarding this fact, he is a failure. So, those who attempt to establish a home and make their fortune during old age are truly worthy of pity.

Old Age

The first forty years of our life-history write us a book, and the following thirty years are the commentary about it.

At twenty years of age, a man is a peacock; at thirty, a lion; at forty, a camel; at fifty, a serpent; at sixty, a dog; at seventy, a monkey; and at eighty, only a voice and a shadow.

Time reveals all things; it is a very intriguing old charlatan, speaking on a whim, even when no questions are asked of him.

There is nothing made by the hand of the poor intellectual animal (mistakenly called human) that sooner or later time cannot destroy.

Death

It is essential to comprehend in depth and in all the levels of the mind what death truly really is; only in this manner is it possible to integrally understand what immortality is. Merely seeing the corpse of a beloved relative within a coffin does not signify that the mystery of death has been comprehended.

For the mind, the truth is unknowable from moment to moment, and the truth about death is no exception.  This is why the “I” always wants—as is hardly natural—insurance against death; that is, a guarantee from some authority that will assure him of a good position and some type of immortality beyond the terrifying sepulcher. This is because the “myself” does not feel any desire to die. Yes, the “I” wants to continue. The “I” is very afraid of death.

The Experience of Reality

In the ancient Greek city Delphi, a sacred inscription was found carved upon the living stone of the solemn threshold of a temple, such a superscription said the following: “Nosce Te Ipsum” (Know thyself). “Man, know thyself, and thou wilt know the universe and its Gods.” This sacred motto of ancient Greek Hierophants is the fundamental, chief corner stone, the head of the corner of the transcendental science of meditation.

Indeed, if we honestly want to establish the basis for correct meditation, then it is necessary to comprehend ourselves in all the levels of our mind. Yes, to establish the correct basis for meditation implies, in fact, to be free of ambition, egotism, fear, hate, the craving for psychic powers, eagerness for results, etc. Thus, undoubtedly, it is clear that after this basic chief corner stone of meditation is established in the mind, it remains in quietude and within a profound and imposing silence.