The 4 Stages of Life

Hi There.

Coaches, practitioners, gurus, therapists, including me – Manna Abraham can offer you many solutions, modalities, techniques and tools to combat life’s conundrums, but they will only work when the recipient is open & willing to take personal responsibility without being a victim and is committed to life long evolution.

According to Hinduism, every individual will pass through the following 4 stages of life and conflicts presented in each of these stages help an individual to evolve.

  1. Students marked by devotion, chastity and discipline
  2. The Householder fulfilling duties towards family, society & community.
  3. The Forest dweller withdrawing from material pursuits and attachments
  4. The Renouncer who is in the pursuit of self and renounces material possessions in search of liberation.

Ego and attachment are not necessarily loaded words confined to the realms of spirituality, religion or ancient wisdom and it has been explored by many other modern-day thinkers.

Erik Erikson is a renowned American-German psychologist from the 20th century.

He specialised in the study of the ego. His hypothesis covers 8 stages of life from infancy to adulthood.

His theory of psychosocial development emphasises social interactions. He argues that a person’s social contexts and experiences determine their personality. Conflict is also central to the theory.

In each stage of life, Erikson proposes a conflict. Each conflict is a turning point where a person faces a struggle to achieve a psychological quality. These conflicts then bring about the individual’s transition into the next stage.

If this knowledge always existed, then why do we still continue to suffer?

The reason is simple – “One who seeks it, will find it”

There is a time to learn, study and that’s the only duty of an individual. Then comes family, children, society & community. There is a time for that too.And then comes a time to free yourself externally and go inwards.

That’s the struggle!!

To navigate and thrive through these stages of life, you need to prepare yourself to take the lessons of one stage into the next without bias. That way, you can keep growing into a happier, better version of yourself as you progress through the stages of life.

Many people suffer or stay stuck in one of these 4 stages or 8 phases of life and cannot free themselves out of attachments and emotions because they cannot comprehend the thought of becoming irrelevant and insignificant.

These are not permanent states but the thought of it is illusionarily permanent.

It’s OK to leave behind what was once very precious!!

Love

Manna

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