Faith & spiritual practice

Many who have studied the spiritual life across the lifespan find that faith tends not to diminish with age but to deepen and simplify — that the elaborate structures of early religion give way to something quieter and more essential. The Jungian developmental arc, the Hindu ashrama system, the Christian mystical tradition's account of the unitive way in later life, the Confucian understanding of the stages of self-cultivation: all suggest that the elder has access to a form of wisdom that is not available to the young and that communities ignore at their own impoverishment. Aging is not the failure of life but, if properly inhabited, its ripening.