Phases of Life in Traditional India

     In India during the Buddha’s time, “the so-called retirement years were seen as a time for the eventual fulfillment of one’s life. (There were) four distinct phases of one’s life: 

          1) as a ‘student,’ where one is expected to remain celibate, learn a trade or profession, train in martial arts if one belongs to a warrior class, or train in conducting rites and rituals if one belongs to a priestly class; 

          2) as a householder, fully participating in a family life – copulation, reproduction, civic and family duties, and so on;

          3) as a ‘retiree,’ where husband and wife together leave all familial responsibilities and join other spiritual strivers in a community in the forest; 

          4) the last stage of life where one leaves even the community behind and walks on into the mountains to be alone and look into the face of death with the courage and dignity one has cultivated in the third phase of life."

       Mu Soeng, Gloria Taraniya Ambrosia, Andrew Olendzki. “Older and Wiser. Classical Buddhist Teachings on Aging, Sickness and Death.” Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, 2017.