Gwen’s Healing Garden

The #1 Web Site Gardening For The Soil Gardening For The Soul

Did You Know | Environmentally Friendly Gardening Products | Non-toxic Cleaning Products | Indoor Gardening With Foliage Plants

Subscribe to the FREE monthly GHG Newsletter and receive free the E-book A Book Of Quotes: Subscribe here

I Long To Be An Opsimath

By Dr Vidaghda Bennett

Opsimath – noun. Refers to one who begins, or continues, to study (takes up a new pursuit) late in life.

As I penetrate deeper into the darkened corridors of life after the age of fifty, the smaller mutinies of body and mind seem to occur with more and more frequency. The ability to learn languages quickly, to remember names, places and significant events – whole banks of memory appear to have receded into oblivion. Then there are other equally telling signs of old age – resistance to change, lack of spontaneity, inflexibility of opinions and habits.

And if the waning of the intellect was not enough, the body has imposed its own set of non-negotiable and ever-narrowing limitations. It insists on remaining ensconced in a comfortable chair for hours on end, reading, working, conversing, eating and, inevitably, dozing.

I despaired of ever reversing this downward slide. Then I began to take notice of elderly people who were doing unconventional and often striking things – taking up parachuting, running ultra-marathons, enrolling in advanced courses at university. Somehow they had recharged their batteries, rekindled their enthusiasm and plunged into the whole learning curve once more.

The legendary American sprinter Payton Jordan (now in his 90’s) once said: “We don’t retire, we just move in another direction and do new exciting things; face new challenges and new opportunities.” And that was when I realised what it is to be an opsimath and live a life of constant newness and inner unfoldment.

The number of opsimaths is steadily on the rise, but of world class opsimaths, I know only one: philosopher, mystic, poet, artist, musician, composer and athlete Sri Chinmoy. Born in India on August 27th, 1931, Sri Chinmoy moved to New York in 1964. Since then, he has been an ever-eager searcher of new ways to express his far-reaching inner vision. Now aged 75, Sri Chinmoy shows no signs of surrendering to the advancing years. His perspective on old age is encapsulated in the following short couplet he recently penned:

Old age is a new page,
And not a broken cage.

In 2005, at the age of 74, he visited Interlaken in the Swiss Alps and gave a unique musical performance. Over the course of seven hours and forty minutes, Sri Chinmoy performed on 171 musical instruments from around the world. Some of them, such as the Chinese erhu and lute, he had only started playing that same year.

In the realm of art, his recent accomplishments have also been staggering. While on a visit to the island of Malta in December 1991, he began to draw birds using simple, graceful outlines. He hoped that these birds would convey something of the freedom of the soul. As these avian images poured forth from his pen in increasingly greater profusion and variety, it became clear that they had become more than just a casual hobby. The artist had found his signature mode of expression. His soul-bird drawings now number more than 15 million.

Sri Chinmoy complements his musical performances and artistic creations with poems, aphorisms, stories and songs. During a long distance journey on Japan’s bullet train in 2006, he composed his 13,000th song in his native Bengali. In November 2006 his 1558th book was published.

His achievements in the sporting arena are no less impressive. Sidelined from running by an injury, he took up serious weightlifting in 1985, at the age of 53. He progressed rapidly to lifting extremely heavy weights and was soon introducing new and innovative lifts into his regimen.

What gives this septuagenarian the unique capacity to renew himself at every moment, to maintain and even augment his physical strength, to find the energy and enthusiasm to sing, write, draw and engage in so many diverse pursuits? He is both a polymath and an opsimath. Sri Chinmoy attributes his inspiration to an inner source. “Prayer and meditation are my inner secrets and my outer secrets,” he says.

I recently read a speech given in 2002 by Magnus Magnussen, the Chancellor of the Glasgow City Chambers in which he said, “Lifelong learning – opsimathy: it is something we should all aspire to.”
I am convinced!

I can only say,

I long to be an opsimath
And banish old age from my path!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright by Dr. Vidagdha Bennett

Dr. Vidagdha Bennett January 10th, 2007 Varna, Bulgaria Dr VIdagdha Bennett is a student of Sri Chinmoy from Australia. http://www.biographyonline.net/spiritual/srichinmoy.html

Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Home | Top

For more information or questions about material on this site contact www.gwenshealinggarden.ca/Contact_Form.htm