In this peaceful and contemplative reflection, 🌳 Master Woo Myung shares a timeless truth: that the purpose of a long life is to learn how to discard the self. While the young and old may live in different ways, the essential wisdom of life lies in learning to shed the ego and let go of one’s memories.
Through Santa Clara Meditation, we discover that true peace comes from discarding the false mind—our attachments, our ego, and the identity we cling to. 💫 To live to the natural end of life is to gradually empty ourselves of the false, so that only Truth remains.
🌼 This message reminds us that aging is not decay, but a natural unfolding of enlightenment—an invitation to return to non-self, to become one with existence.
The Natural Span of Life
The elderly live in their way,
and the young live in theirs;
they all live lives
but their thoughts differ.
When a person lives a long time,
he comes to know discarding.
Discarding is none other than
the non-existence of self.
To be without self
is to shed one’s ego.
To shed one’s ego
is to throw away one’s memories.
This is the reason people should live to
the natural end of their lives.
– Woo Myung
