Physical Longevity Is a Reflection of Spiritual Longevity

“The Tao of Longevity and Lasting Vision”

Acumulating virtues, means there is nothing one cannot overcome

When there is nothing that one cannot overcome,

One’s limits are unknown.

The limits being unknown, one can possess Sovereignty.

With this mother principle of power, one can be everlasting.

This is called deep roots and firm foundation.

The Tao of Longevity and Lasting Vision

Longevity is a topic that is becoming more prevalent these days, with fitness a $96 billion dollar industry worldwide. This may be driven by the collective ego of people who simply want to look good for everyone else. Yet there are plenty of people who are sick with chronic diseases who simply want to live longer and experience contentment. This is the group that I hope to offer assistance to. So rather than focus just on physical longevity, The Tao (the way, the path) of Longevity begins with Spiritual Longevity.

What is Spiritual Longevity? Like many spiritual traditions, Tao Cultivators understand that there is much more than just the physical aspect of “self”. For those who believe in reincarnation, there is a never-ending cycle of life and death in which the spirit experiences many lives. Too often these lives are filled with suffering and misery through no fault of their own. Yet in this modern age, there is a lot of suffering that people cause for themselves. The glaring question is why we as a society, especially Western Society, do this to ourselves.

Six in ten Americans live with at least one chronic disease, like heart disease and stroke, cancer, or diabetes. These and other chronic diseases are the leading causes of death and disability in America, and they are also a leading driver of health care costs.
Source: CDC (Center for Disease Control)

The answer I believe lies within. Too many people are dominated by ego-driving desires and distractions living in a waking dream of always striving for more. According to the CDC, six out of ten people cause themselves to be chronically ill, a category of self-caused suffering. The course of action to stop this destructive behavior is learning to control themselves. Or more specifically learning to control ego and desire. One must learn to wake up and become conscious and aware of what they are doing and why. The becomes the foundation of “self” discipline, where “self” is binary. The ego-self must be controlled by the spiritual self, also known as the “True Self”. This is the intent and purpose of spiritual cultivation which is internal. So before a person cannot effectively work on physical longevity, they must first awaken and cultivate spiritual longevity.

Your Destiny Is Not Predetermined

The sub-title to the new book and this blog, “Your Destiny Is Not Predermined”, means that you do not have to end up one of the 6 in 10 people who developed a chronic disease and die before you should. If you truly want to have a long successful life, you can become the sovereign ruler over your physical life and manage the ego so that the choices you make lead to a much better destiny. We make choices every moment of every day that creates our future. When we are awake and aware, consciously choosing those actions that are right, and promoting harmony, physical longevity will follow.

What is meant by waking up and paying attention? Most people who have not trained in mediation, do not comprehend just how distracted they are. Their busy minds are inundated with too much activity, stress, and drama. Their mindstream can be like a mountain river after a flash flood; out of control. Meditation is the state of being where the spirit, also considered to be the “observer” remains detached and awake, not lost in the incessant stream of thoughts and emotions. This is covered in detail in the book. Once awakened, the higher self becomes the Sovereign ruling life through wisdom and experience, avoiding the ego traps that cause suffering. This state of being is known as “self-awareness”. Once awake and aware, the observing true self (spirit) can pay attention to the mind and guard against ego takeover without being reactive to it. Through stillness, desire is dispelled and the ego becomes distant.

The term “Tao Cultivator” simply means one who cultivates the way. It is the way of reality, the way of living successfully, and with harmony in world around us. Harmony, as you will learn in the book, is no small thing. It is a powerful virtue, that through the cause and effect of Karma, turns the choices you make into the destiny of wellbeing. So if you want to truly have a long successful life, now and in future lifetimes, cultivate spiritual longevity and the physical will follow. Karmic affinity will follow your lives with the wisdom you attained, so that each time around you can improve and get better. Spiritual longevity is not just about this life, but also about the ones that will follow.

August 27, 2022 0

The Tao of Transcendence

I define Meditation as a transcendent state of being. Transcendence is to exist and experience clear of, beyond, or above the physical realm. Even more to the point, Meditation cultivates the ability to transcend the ego mind which often dominates the physical world. To cultivate Longevity, a person must rise above the ego-self and take charge of life. Another way of seeing Transcendence is to understand it awaken from the ego self and go beyond, rise above into the True Self.

Self

The first principle to consider is to wake up and recognize the duality of consciousness and mind, and then to transcend it. Let us begin with a rudimentary definition of the word “self”. In the interactive physical realm ego sense of self is often reflected in the word “me”.

This term is useful and necessary in modern-day syntax for effective communication. We use it multiple times a day, every day. As a language tool, the word “me” is used by a person to refer to themselves. As you can see the word “self” is woven into our way of speech and is indispensable. Also referring to one’s self in the grammatical sense is “I” which denotes who is “doing” or “being”. “Me” denotes the object of a verb and is used when the speaker is the receiver of something. See if you can notice how many times a day and in the context, you use the words Me, I, and Self while communicating with others.

The next perspective to consider is the metaphysical or spiritual one. In this view, both “I” and “me” refer to the ego through its sense of “self-awareness” which is almost reflected through cravings and desire. Examples:

“What about me?” Or “what about mine”

“I need that” or “I want that” and “I must have that to be happy”

The Duality of Self

All things in the Tao follow the Yin Yang duality. The duality of self is in the broader sense The spiritual eternal self and the physical self. The Spirit Self or True Self is the eternal soul, and the Physical self is the entity you identify with and experience life in the physical realm. The Physical self is also The spiritual self that does not think in language so the subject pronoun is not relevant. In the physical realm, the physical self is binary. Physical spirit is a reflection of the eternal spirit (True-Self) a forms duality with the ego-self. Think of Yin (physical spirit harmonizing in the physical realm with the ego-self. When a person has not yet transcended, they mostly experience life through the ego self with Ying following Yang which is how most people identify. Being “me” is all they know. Right now, you may be coming to this realization.

According to Tao Tzu, only one in ten people are successful in life. These are the awakened ones who follow the true path. The rest, nine out ten, suffer and die too soon. These are the ones who have not awakened yet and their ego self is causing failure in life. The one in ten he speaks of have transcended the ego and have attained Sovereignty. Sovereignty is the virtue of ruling over your life with wisdom and clarity.

Transcendence

Transcendence is the process of awakening from the prison of the ego. The ego and its associated mind link form a multiplex of subroutines or personalities that form this illusionary identity. The ego is a mental entity that creates the illusion. This self-created prison is the ego mind which traps the person through craving (desire) and fear. The illusion of prison is constructed by the inability to let go of attachments that arise from desire or fear. When we suffer, we look for ways to cope with emotional and physical pain. These coping measures become habits and addictions which lead to more suffering. Yet we cannot let go because we fear we will lose, and we desire more of it to stop the suffering. It often creates a downward spiral which becomes harder and harder to escape as time goes on. Since this is all that, you know, there appears to be no way out of the life of suffering. This is a big illusion. The illusion can be broken by awakening from this realistic dream state through meditation. The important thing is that every one of us has the potential to awaken and know the truth through meditation and transcendence.

Self-awareness – The True Self

Transcendence is an evolution of awakening:

Awakening – (rising above the thinking mind, the process of detaching)
Presence (Self-aware, present, fully in the now)
Oneness (Stillness, clarity, and unity with Tao)
Dissipation/Dispelling (of desire and emotion)
Harmony

Meditation is a Transcended state of being (awareness) where through observation there becomes a distinction between consciousness and mind. This is a subject-object view where the observer is the subject, and the mind is the object. Who is this observer that is separate from the mind? It is the true self or soul that is eternal and all-knowing. The realization of this is the transcendence of waking up from pure ego being to spiritual being. When awakened (transcended) one is self-aware. This is to say, that the true self is detached and observing recognizing that there is much to life than the singular egoic view of life. Of the two parts of the physical self, it is the physical spiritual self that is unified with the true self (soul). The True Self shines through the physical true self and manages life. This is sovereignty and the only way to manage the ego.

The Ego.

The Ego is a mental entity. It evolved with our species as we grew more sophisticated and learned how to survive in a harsh environment. It is the aspect of mind and self that takes care of “me”. It is crafty, smart, tenacious, and narcissistic. Unlike other religions that direct a person towards enlightenment by annihilating the ego, the Taoist approach is one of management recognizing that completely ridding oneself of ego is both impossible and extreme. Arguably the ego must be managed yet sometimes it can bring forth something that the true self can use. The ego is attached to emotion which can be problematic therefore, transcendence from it being the sole identity is the way to break free of emotional attachments. For the person, possibly you the reader, the ego is all that you know. This means you identify with the ego and all its attachments, desires, and dark emotions. Yet most people have a moment from time to time where a subtle wise whisper suggests the higher path. Part of the wise self will get through, if only for a moment, and in that pause, the true self is rising above, and you are awakening. But then, without training, most will slip back into the world of ego and be lost again for some period of time, suffering, and not knowing how to escape.

Transcendence is the waking of the True Self. This awakened state is known as self-awareness. As you begin to awaken to the realization that you are and always have been a spiritual being having a physical experience so does the possibility of escaping. The prison disappears and you, your true essence is free to construct and manage a successful life. In meditation, thoughts become objects to be observed in a detached non-reactive manner. It is in the stillness or emptiness of thought where oneness with the Tao is discovered. With oneness, you will gain clarity and enlightenment. It is in the stillness that becomes the source of clarity. Clarity is the truth of reality. Enlightenment in this context is the end of self-caused suffering

There are three meditations recommended for the process of awakening and cultivating self-awareness and sovereignty (discipline over the ego).

Transcendence Meditation (Mantra or Breath)
Mindfulness Meditation (detached observation of the mind)
Contemplative Meditation (detached self-discovery and reflection)

There are many other types of meditation, these three are what I advised for cultivating self-awareness, sovereignty, and enlightenment. You can find instructors for these in many places. It is your job to find the teacher and begin the process of learning and cultivating.

Self-awareness is a state of being that is apart from or above the duality of mind and ego. Both the physical spirit self and the ego self mold and shape the mind. It is the illusion that you are the mind is the state that you awaken from. In self-awareness, you become aware of the ego and its influence over the mind and thus life. From the perspective of self-awareness, you can control your destiny through choices the wisdom of the true self makes and ignore the always insistence needy whiny ego. These choices directly affect the destiny of longevity and the quality of present life.

Self-awareness takes cultivation. There is the initial awakening from which most people will fall back asleep with the illusion of ego life. To make it stick takes practice and repetition to get strong and stronger at staying awake, aware, and detached. Through practice, your skill gets stronger and stronger which means that you begin to remain longer and longer in the awakened state. As this happens life begins to change in the most amazing and wonderful ways.

See Stillness Meditation in the Meditation Section

The True Self (Living Spirit) and the True Path.

The Way of longevity is one the being on the true path. What is the true self and the true path? The true self is the transcended sense of self that is awakened and aware. In the diagram above it is called the living spirit. I follow the perspective that in the physical realm and physical life experience these two aspects. Physical spirit self and ego mind self. The living spirit is the avatar of the soul for experiencing physical life. This is the meaning of the saying, “a spiritual being having a physical experience”.

Through meditation and transcendence, the physical living spirit awakens and takes charge of life which is the Tao principle of Sovereignty. In the diagram above you can see that the living spirit holds a larger presence than the ego-self. This is the true self. The ego is a mental entity that evolved with us as we evolved as primates into modern humans. It is a survival mechanism that has helped us to endure. Yet it is also the troublemaker that must be managed. You may have lived your whole life only identifying as ego. If, however, while reading this you realize that there is this better self, then you are beginning to identify as the true self, spirit. Meditation is the way of rising above ego and with practice, there is a place of harmony where the two work together to become a much higher being.

Sovereignty, a key virtue of the True Self, is the spiritual discipline that rules the physical life and manages the ego. Through Sovereignty, harmony between the true self and ego is attained. Rather than annihilate the ego, a balance is achieved between the aspects of self. This balance creates the harmonious synergy that is reflected by a sense of well-being, thriving, and success. This is the true path.

How do you know if you are on the true path? Here are a few questions to consider. Be honest and accurate.

How satisfied or dissatisfied with your life?
Is your life characterized by a sense of well-being?
Are you healthy?
Do you have a self-cause chronic disease?
Are you passionate about your life’s work?
Is your career/job fun, rewarding, and fulfilling on many levels? Or is do you hate your job, feel stuck, and deeply wish you were not there?
How often do you feel stress and anxiety due to influences that seem out of your control?
How often do you feel content with your life?
What do you do when you are not at your job? Are you involved in other activities that you enjoy and serve others? Or are you coping with stress by overindulgence
How often do you feel a sense of contentment, spontaneity and joy at life’s wonderful surprises? Or how often do you feel a sense of self-loathing, disgust, unworthiness, or despair?
What type of people do you seem to attract in your life? People, who seem happy and easy to laugh and smile? Or are you mostly surrounded by people who don’t care, take advantage of you, or are always being disrespectful, moody, and filled with drama?
Do you often feel lucky, grateful, and blessed? Or do you feel unlucky, resentful, and never have enough of that which you desire most?
How often do you look to the heavens and ask, “why me”?
Are you always struggling financially? Or does there somehow always seem to be enough money to live with contentment?

If you answered most of these questions with an honest positive reflection, then you are experiencing life as the true self, on your true path. You are getting the most out of life’s journey and on a good trajectory for longevity. You can even reach a higher level by following the teachings of the way along with others who found success.

If like so many others in our society, you felt in truth, negative affirmations about the conditions of your life, then you are still unawakened, still lost, and under the control of the ego mind. This is the path of self-destruction and distraction is an active element in keeping you there on the path of suffering.

The more that your choices are guided by wisdom the more successful you become at life. As discussed in the chapter The Tao of Virtue choice, virtue and karma create destiny. By accumulating virtue, you develop an extraordinary wisdom for staying on the longevity path. The way of virtue (The Tao of Virtue) becomes the way you deal with life in a moment-by-moment, day-by-day means of crafting your life by controlling ego and making wise choices that keep you on the path of longevity. As you craft your life plan, you make the changes through lifestyle choices.

It is only through self-awareness can you attain the Tao and make the Alchemy of Qigong work. Qigong is the next section on cultivating life. The alchemy is the process of changing something ordinary into something extraordinary. It comes down to the point of whether you can control the ego and through a meditative focus practice the Qigong principles for the magic to happen. It will happen. All you must do is consciously align your way of life with the way of the universe (Tao) and the results will manifest as intended. This is the Tao of Transcendence and the Tao of Longevity.

Finally, you must learn to incorporate the Tao of Longevity into a Lifestyle for Longevity. Later you will learn much about how Desire, Coping, and Indolence fueled by the ego are ruining your chances for that long-satisfied authentic life that awaits you, the true self.

August 19, 2022 0

Meditation and Longevity

In holding the soul and embracing oneness

Can one be steadfast, without straying?

Verse 1, Chapter 10, Tao Te Ching

An Introduction to Meditation

A simple definition of meditation would be a “heightened state of awareness”. Further distinction reveals that meditation is a stated of being where the practice of meditation is a state of doing. Thus, the one cultivates a heightened state of awareness through the practice of focused concentration in a heightened state of awareness. Through practice a transcended state of awareness is the realized by the observing true self. In the heightened state of awareness, the true-self becomes aware of the influence of mind and mood instigated by the ego-mind hence “self-awareness”.

Once in a Dharma lesson, our teacher instructed us to imagine that a loudspeaker was attached to our head and everything that we thought would be broadcast out into the open for all the world to hear. It was part of a mindfulness lesson where we were learning to practice the awareness of what we are thinking. If the world could hear your thoughts, what would they sound like? If you answered chaos, then you are not alone.

I believe most people live in a shifting state of attention. We spend most of our time in either a distracted state or in seeking sources of distraction. Distraction here is defined as the inability to pay attention and experience the present moment. Distraction is a state of mind where attention is absorbed by both internal and external sources. In the modern age, we are conditioned from our earliest days to allow our minds to become absorbed somewhere else. We suspend our ability to be present and allow our minds to be captivated by someone or something else. One example would be television.

Television and videos have become a distraction that absorbs our attention. Even worse, our own cognitive processes are superseded by the content. Perhaps that is one reason the content is called programming. The programming not only induces distraction but also confuses the viewer into believing a false reality. I have been told that there are even television shows that are called reality tv. When we allow our attention to become absorbed by Television we are lost to the present reality and substitute it for the programmed reality. By the time a person is 20 years old, it is likely that their ability to pay attention is very weak and the reality they do perceive is defined by years of artificial experience. When reality does not align with the false reality that they have been conditioned to expect, life becomes problematic. Then real life does not meet the expectations implanted by the programming. In this distracted state, one cannot find and know their true self.

If you spend most of your time distracted, you are not paying attention to the true reality and most importantly, lost to the present moment. So how can you be able to implement a successful life strategy with a foundation of self-control? Specifically, how can you implement self-discipline when you are trying to change bad habits.? And importantly, what if a “successful life” is defined by unrealistic expectations by years of unrealistic conditioning. You cannot remain present and paying attention if you are continuously lost in distraction. This is the first area to work on as you become a cultivator of successful living. You must learn how to wake up and become present to the choices you are making that create your destiny (Longevity).

Self-awareness is our consciousness residing in the present moment and aligned with reality. This is developed through meditation. You must rise above distraction which is a process called transcendence. When your consciousness is absorbed by something else, you are not aware. Most importantly you are not self-aware. By transcending the captivating mindstream that constantly captivates your mental focus from the present. When you are awake you are present. Your attention is right here, right now. It is only and always now. It is in the present moment that you construct destiny by the choices you make.

This brings us the most common distraction which is thinking and being lost in run-away thought. Thinking can resemble a quiet and lazy stream one day and a raging torrent the next. Your mind will often be chaotic constructing mental ‘what if’ scenarios of what might have happened or what might happen. Guided by fear, anger, greed, desire, and a whole bunch of other inappropriate emotions, the mind carries our attention to places that cause high levels of stress and anxiety. These ‘what if’ thinking episodes can often become loops or a voice that plays over and over in your head. This is a very stressful state of distraction where you can become lost in the illusion of something in past or something in the future. Either way, it is either over and done with or it has never happened yet. You must wake up and orient at this moment and this current reality.

Meditation is the higher state of consciousness. When consciousness is absorbed by any distraction, whether it is incessant thinking or watching hours and hours of television, we enter a state of distraction which is a much lower state of awareness (consciousness). With practice, you can learn to keep your attention and awareness present and observing. This state of being is meditation. Meditation is not so much as something you do as it is being in a state of presence and observing.

Meditation is the practice of concentrating awareness on a point of observation where you can observe what is going on in the mind. When you are focused and observing, you are doing so from a subjective point of view. The observer is the subject and the content that is being observed is the object. In meditation, you become the observer, and thinking is ‘observed’. Now you can see and observe that you are not your thoughts. This observer is the true self and is above the thinking mind and able to both observe and manage your life. And most importantly distraction is the state of being where attention is lost or absorbed in thinking. Lost in distraction and is unable to change perspective. Hence the term “lost in thought”. This is not a bad thing when it is a deliberate contemplative process that is seeking clarity. But when your attention is captivated by thinking (an internal source of distraction) and you cannot free your ‘self’ it generates a lot of stress and anxiety. When our attention is captivated by television we are distracted by external sources. When you transcend distraction, you become the observer (true self). As the observer, you can control attention and keep it present in the now. This is done by concentrating the focus on a particular element in the present. The most common focal points are breath (the experience of breathing) or by repeating a mantra. As you observe either one, the attention is kept in the now, in the methodology. It is common, especially for beginners, for the mind to wander constantly and it is important to not react but just return the attention back to the intended focal point. It takes an everyday practice but over time you will be able to cultivate a sense of detachment and find stillness.

Meditation is the realization of the spiritual self (true self), experiencing life in the physical realm. Thus, for the awakened being, life is a meditative balance between being and doing. Too much sitting can be as unhealthy as not enough. One very effective technique is to take up types of moving meditation such as Yoga and Tai Chi. When enough skill has been cultivated, the person can remain in the transcended state which enable many skills for creating longevity. In the transcended state it become possible to practice several important techniques that bring about dynamic healing and restoration.

Before you begin to build your own longevity program, you must learn to manage ego and control desire. As you have read in previous chapters in this book, self-discipline is the Tao principle of Sovereignty. Without this foundation of spiritual discipline your chances of success are greatly reduced if not impossible to achieve. Here is the step by level by level to cultivate as you begin to change your life.

To begin with, in my experience, it is impossible for most people to make themselves stop thinking and destroy desire. For so many people this why they fail at the very beginning. Rather than actively making war on thinking and desire, the lesson to learn, the skill to cultivate is stillness. When the mind is still and spirit is fully realized, thoughts will diminish natural along with desire. Once the mind is still and calm you will be able to observe and find clarity on what is causing the disturbances, causes, and sources of thoughts and desire so that they will diminish. You as the true self and observer can explore and contemplate how you arrived in the destiny you are currently living. Then you can begin the process of stopping the choices and behaviors that karma had created in your life. The process meditative process is as such:

Stillness (Transcendence) Meditation
Mindfulness Mediation
Contemplative Meditation
Healing Meditation (found in the healing and restoration protocol section)

The lessons in this book share many times that your destiny is not predetermined and that in each now, each moment of perception, you are creating your destiny. We all create them by the choices that we make over and over. The realization of these choices is a result of cause and effect. There is a natural law of cause and effect (karma) to which Tao cultivators pay very close attention. This is the foundation for staying on the longevity path. The meditative process of being in unity with the natural order of existence is known as “oneness with the Tao”. The following chapters will explore the four meditations above so that you can begin to bring the miraculous power of inner harmony to realize a long successful life. This is the Tao of Longevity.