Life's Afternoon

"Thoroughly unprepared, we take the step into the afternoon of life. Worse still, we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and our ideals will serve us as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning, for what was great in the morning will be little at evening and what in the morning was true, at evening will have become a lie.” - Carl Gustav Jung

In order to live a life of wisdom, or prajna, we must see things as they really are (right view) and have a selfless comprehension of how things operate (right understanding) and this practice is cultivated over a lifetime through diligence. This diligence, says Lama Surya Das, is a process of phases: learning, reflection and experience.

Learning is the gathering and examining of information from our inner and outer worlds of experience. It involves being open to receive and being active in the accumulation of wisdom.

Reflection is where we analyze and process what we have learned, mulling it over and taking it in...again and again and again as we immerse in the cultivation of wisdom.

Experience is the incorporation and application of what we have learned to how we live--practice in action; assimilation of wisdom.

Then we come to know ourselves well...so well, that we are not unprepared in the afternoon of our life.