Secrets of Taoism Longevity and Living a Long Healthy Life (original) (raw)
Longevity and Lifestyle
The Personal Tao book examines Immortality. Now, let’s take a closer look at Taoist practices of longevity.
A Lifestyle For a Longer Life
Taoism holds together a lifestyle of practices to guide a person within a long healthy life. How long? Anecdotal stories talk about centuries. The more myth like aspects of Taoism tell stories of men living thousands of years. Science itself has only officially documented human life spans of 120 to 130 years. However, as pointed out in the immortality chapter: it’s actually meaningless to work towards physical immortality. Rather Taoists learn to extend their lives indefinitely. In other words, a Taoist lives day to day with no concern to how long they might live.
Happy 100th Birthday Grandma!
Summing up a Long Life
The nature of our life is eternal already. The true point and secret of the Taoist longevity practices are to live well and with clarity. In living well, Taoists do live longer than average lifespans. More importantly, Taoist practice, ensures a healthy body and mind to enjoy a long lifespan. Living to 75, 120 or even past 200 would be a drag if you mind was mush or if your body couldn’t dance anymore.
Taoism is one of the most assessable of all human practices, as most of Taoist wisdom can be considered to be common sense. Science has finally begun to catch up with some of the lore found in Taoist practice. Many of the subtle details of practices such as Taoist diets or Qigong exercises can be found online or through local practitioners. I recommend starting with Qigong. Taoist diets can be a bit complicated and hard to match requirements unless you are living in the Orient where the balance of food was originally determined by Taoist masters. Over time Taoist diet plans will get revised to fit the larger food choices of the modern world, but it will take a few decades still. Taoists are a patient lot, a direct benefit of living within a practice of longevity.
And if you already are 79, is it too late? No! Living boundlessly within “now” is always assessable even unto the last breath. The truth of this practice is just to be open to acceptance: acceptance that you are indeed complete, which we all are, every moment of our life.
The root answer to longevity is to take the time to explore and live to your nature. To do so is to be a Taoist.
Meditation Class
This 90-minute video class will introduce you to meditation. We will go over the practical aspects of setting up your practice.
Casey will teach you how to use the Dragon Fire Meditation technique. He will also start you off by learning the morning meditation practice. Dragon Fire will serve you for a lifetime as you continue to expand and explore other meditation practices. Morning Meditation will give you a framework to incorporate additional meditation techniques into your life.
The class also includes six guided meditations and a further article about working with awareness.