What age?

[cabinintheforest]

What age did people on this forum start getting interested in spirituality at?

Im 19 and have been interested in it for a few years, im going to continue studying it

[karen]

It depends on what you mean by getting interested. I've been nominally interested in the ideas of life after death and who and what god is since I was 12 or so. But only in the last few years has the search been very earnest for me at 40.

[klaus]

Since I was 8. I actually thought of becoming a priest then.

[eputkonen]

Feb 14, 2010 18:28:16 GMT -5 @cabinintheforest said:

What age did people on this forum start getting interested in spirituality at?

Im 19 and have been interested in it for a few years, im going to continue studying it

I've been trying to figure out the Truth since I was probably 15...but it did not turn into what I would call "spirituality" until about 18. I'm 36 now.

[lightmystic]

For me, there as always an interest in the esoteric and feeling that life was deeper than was commonly recognized. But the serious seeking took off when the pain of separation got too great. And that was around age 18....

[souley]

I think I have always been very curious and questioning by nature, but perhaps 2,5 years ago I got very interested in the nature of existence. Starting in the western scientific view, reading about theories of physics and evolution, then finding my way through different subjects. I read my first spiritual book "the power of now" a little bit over 1,5 year ago, having no real clue about spirituality when reading it. It kind of blew me away. After that I found similar books, and started to recognize what the theme was. So that was at 24, now I'm 26 years old.

[vacant]

Age 13, got really frustrated with the lack of answers in catholicism my grandma had influenced me into. Made one last prayer: “God this isn’t working, if we are to have a relationship you will have to, please do, reveal yourself”. With hindsight, I think He or She probably did but I wasn’t paying enough attention.
From age 18, reading Alan Watts opened me up to another way, and some new hope. That also led to psychedelic pills — Cabin, although I have been drug free for many years now, I could not deny it was a blessed eye opener, granted though it also came with a confused burden—. I was on to “something”.
From age 20, in a severe mess, having no meditation training I improvised my own technique to befriend emptiness and concentrate on “nothing”.
From age 23, learned of breath awareness, hooked up to it deeper and deeper. Practised for years. My life got very harmonious —aint saying enlightened nor hocuspocus— but I was travelling on a harmonious cloud, there was light around, while confusion was far below.
From age 32, got side tracked what with raising a family, running business and other petty excuses. In those long years, breath awareness was never too far as a safety buoy, but rarely close enough either. Main and recurring inspiration was my 4 translations of Lao Tsu’s Tao The King.
From age 49 the kids were grown up and I felt less pressure to churn the money, so I slimmed down the business to get back closer to the search. Got more earnestly into my meditation but soon found that harmonious was not enough any longer, the call was from some other deeper part, PERHAPS NOT SO SECURE! I had long known I wanted to study and enrich myself when I was less busy, but I had not foreseen how the search would become so frantic. Started to devour spiritual books.
Age 57, Franklin Merrell-Wolff’s work operates a real shift… Richard Rose’s writings convince me that I should communicate with fellow seekers, and that leads to this forum. Constantly practise silly inner contorsions in attempts to get out of the way and catch glimpses of “what is”, occasionally very briefly rewarded.
Now age 58.

…or did I just dream the whole thing?

[vacant]

I might have over-answered the question at hand!

[karen]

Nonsense! I loved the reply!

[unveilable]

I use to pray like h*%k to pass exams in the 5th grade. Aside from that I began searching and experimenting by 15. I had a strong sense of being different from others and a great desire to identify and undo any assumptions I had about what was true. By age 19 the entire process overwhelmed me to the point that I had to agree to stop everything until I was more prepared. You have to really work at denial to place something like that on hold. I just turned 40 last week and can say the process in an earnest way has resumed. For this I am very grateful.

[question]

Feb 15, 2010 21:05:50 GMT -5 karen said:

Nonsense! I loved the reply!

So did I!


That innocent attitude of wondering, not knowing, feeling different, not of this world, I think it was present in me as far back as I can remember. But I had no idea that it might have something to do with spirituality. At about 17-18 I became best friends with a classmate who had a spiritual experience, we meditated a lot, discussed spirituality a lot. That's when I began reading everything about spirituality. Learning about that context made me understand why I felt like I did, or at least it helped me to put a label on my feelings. Years later I found out that all that studying actually alienated me from being authentic. The little kid's attitude was much more authentic than that of the learned young man.

Right now, at 26, I'm in kind of a no man's land. Just finished my art diploma two weeks ago and I have zero plans for the future other than simply making money until I don't have to anymore and living each day as it comes.

[klaus]

Question,

Ha,ha! You are so right. You need that openess that kid's have.

[desertrain]

Throughout my teens I was interested in the paranormal and also mildly interested in God. At 19 I got interested in Theosophy and a year and a half from that I moved on to yoga and meditation. That went on for a few months until I got introduced to non-duality and I've been on that road ever since, focusing on fewer and fewer teachers. I'm 23 now.

[zendancer]

At the age of nineteen I began to question everything that I had learned about the world. I felt certain that "something was rotten in Denmark." I was sure that everybody was overlooking something fundamental, but I couldn't figure out what it was. By the age of twenty I was deep into the search, reading and studying philosophy and thinking like crazy. After a while, I concluded that the philosophers were just as clueless as the scientists. Everybody around me seemed to be living in a kind of dream, and I would sit around thinking thoughts like, "What is the purpose of blindly going to school to get a good a job in order to get a wife and three kids and a four-bedroom house in order for the three kids to grow up and repeat the whole stupid process?" I felt like a rat in a trap. At the age of 31 I encountered Alan Watts and Eastern religions, and intuited that various Zen Masters, Sufi Masters, and Taoist Masters understood what I wanted to know, but I couldn't find a doorway into their world. During the next nine years I devoured hundreds of books on those subjects without any success. At age 40 I started doing a breath awareness exercise. I started with an hour per day and five months later I was practicing three hours per day. I then had a big mystical experience that lasted several days. After it ended, I began going on silent retreats, had more unity-consciousness experiences and saw deeper into what was going on. At age 55 my spiritual search came to an end when I discovered that who I had thought I was had never existed. I felt like I finally understood everything that I had ever wanted to understand about the universe. It felt wonderful not having to search any longer, and I had a deep sense of equanimity and contentment. I began to live an ordinary life for the first time in thirty-five years, and did whatever needed to be done. I worked like crazy for the next nine years to pay off debts and reduce various obligations. At the same time I took time to dance and play, go skiing and mountain-climbing, but also continued to go on silent retreats. After the big recession hit, work slowed down, and I had more free time to hike in the woods and play on the internet. I found this website, and after a few weeks of interacting with people on this board, I found myself shifting away from the mind more and more often than in the past and spending longer and longer periods of time in silent presence. I am now 66 and feel myself being drawn deeper and deeper into the unknown. It feels as if I've been calmly floating down a river for the last ten years and now the current is suddenly picking up, which is quite surprising. If Nisargadatta and Ramana were around, I'd give those guys a big hug because I feel like I'm just now starting to fully appreciate their level of presence.

[loverofall]

40 if you mean on enlightenment. I've been a seeker though for many years and knew something was wrong. Growing up Catholic and having a Baptist girlfriend tell me I was hell-bound never made sense. I hung out with other Christian denominations when I was in the Army for a couple years out of high-school. In college I joined the Mormon church because they were serious. After a few years, couldn't buy into the deeper doctrines with the Internet basically putting a spotlight on any inconsistencies. Tried to go back to a generic church but everyone seemed weak or over emotional and even thought I didn't agree with the Mormons they were so much more like Christ and committed than the others. Stumbled across Tolle "Power of Now" while going through counseling classes and then read Adyashanti and a ton of other books which finally explained all the insanity I had been watching in religion, family and the world. I just couldn't believe it was there all along in Buddhism, Hinduism and Mystic Christianity.