Sun - Perfect health: the Taoist way

The Taoist Way

DR. HUA SUN

Copyright 2013 Hua Sun
Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved.

ISBN-10: 1481841203
ISBN-13: 978-1481841207

This book is dedicated to

all who aspire to live an enlightenedlife.

1. Introduction

Today we are facing enormous healthchallenges like never before. According to the Australian Bureau ofStatistics, heart disease remains the biggest health problem forover a decade in Australia. Brain episodes, including stroke andblocked brain arteries, are the second biggest killer. Dementia andAlzheimers disease caused nine thousand deaths in 2010 inAustralia, almost triple that of a decade ago. Lung cancer andrelated diseases caused eight thousand deaths in 2010 with sevenmillion at risk of lung disease. The end stage of kidney diseasehas tripled over the past twenty years. The number of obesity anddiabetes cases has more than doubled in the last twenty years andcontinue to rise.

The above outcomes can be readily explainedby the Taoist (Daoist) principles and traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)a medical system developed based on the Taoist principles.Many of the above diseases and deaths can be prevented and avoidedif we know and follow the basic principles of Taoism (Daoism). Inaddition, many diseasesincluding those mentioned abovecan bedealt with effectively using some simple Taoist techniquespracticed over thousands of years.

Taoism has served the health of the Chinesepeople for thousands of years; in fact, the whole of thetraditional Chinese culture is based largely on Taoist principles.If you have ever wondered about the uniqueness of the Chineseculture and why it has survived numerous wars, famines, and allsorts of natural and human destructions, and has remained largelyintact over thousands of years and has repeatedly emerged on theworld stage as a major (if not the foremost) power, the answer isin Taoism. The Taoist principles are not limited to health,longevity, and culture; rather they are universal and can beapplied to practically all things in the universe.

I arrived in Australia to study for a PhD inenvironmental engineering at Adelaide University in 1993. Uponcompleting the study in 1997, I returned to China. For many people,this Australian experience would be a matter of much celebration,as few PhDs returned to China after their study abroad at the time.For some reason, however, I became bewildered with the purpose oflife after many years of pursuing academic excellence and otherlife goals. At the same time, I found my health had declinedconsiderably to the extent that I could hardly run one thousandmeters without gasping desperately for air. Hay fever with runningnoses became almost a daily business for me. Moreover, I couldhardly stand for more than three hours without feeling pain in mylegs. Although I was only about thirty-five at that time, I couldsee clearly what was waiting for me down the tracka fragile andweak man moving on a wheelchair. Even though that may be decadesaway, it appeared almost unavoidable. I asked myself, is that thelife I would like to lead? How can I change my lifefundamentally?

I knew that ordinary activities or medicinescould help me to a certain extent, but not fundamentallyand theonly way to achieve the best outcome is through some fundamentalchanges in life. Nothing seemed more fundamental than a religion tochange my life. Since people have adopted religion for millennia toachieve body and mind liberation, there must be some reason fordoing so. In general, people are not stupid, and anything that canlast that long must have some good reasons behind it. I alsounderstood that whatever religion I chose, it must contain somepractices that require devotion and extraordinary personal effortto achieve the ultimate goal.

I started with an exercise called BaDuanJin(the Golden Eight Exercises). BaDuanJin is a series of exercisesthat involves a component of breathing exercise, which I could doon my bed. The exercises were described in a little book I pickedup from a friends place, and it was the only thing I had access toin early 2000. After about six months of daily practicing, I didnot find it very useful or helpful or indeed fundamental, and as aresult, I stopped practicing it.

By this time, a previous colleague wascoming from China to visit Australia, and I asked him to buy mesome books that I had researched over the Internet. These wereTaoist books written by a person who had practiced to a level thatfew people could match in China at the time. The reason that Ichose these books is that Taoists are renowned for their pursuit oflongevity in Chinese history, and they put a lot of effort intoboth the body and mind in their unique teachings and training. Onthe other hand, Buddhistsincluding Chan (Zen) in generaldo notsee their bodies as precious, even though both Taoists andBuddhists aim to achieve the same final goal, as I found outlater.

It has now been over twelve years since Istarted my journey practicing Taoism, and I have to say I havegained enormously from the practice. The benefits are both bodilyand spiritually, and most importantly, the achievements can be seenand measured materially. Almost all my previous diseases are goneor in the final stage of being removed. My hay fever has greatlyimproved, and my legs are feeling strong again. Since I benefitedimmensely from practicing Taoism, I must share it with my fellowtravelers according to the Taoist tradition, so that you canbenefit the same as I have if you follow the same practices.

In this book I try to present a number ofsimple but carefully selected techniques based on the time-honoredTaoist principles and traditions regarding sleeping, exercise,food, sex, and meditation to help you to improve your health. Theseguidelines are simple to follow, and all you need to do is tochoose a few that are most suitable to you, and soon you will feelthe difference materially. With persistence, you can achieve eitherprimary health (first class health compared to an ordinary health)or perfect health, depending on what practices you choose and howhigh your devotion is. In addition, I also present ways to avoiddamage to the body and mind due to lifestyle and environmentalfactors. For those who aspire to achieve even higher goals inlifefor instance, those motivated to work toward immortality or asuperman statusI also present advanced ways on how to move ontothis path and move to a level beyond perfect health, with aparticular focus on mind training. Where possible, I try to presentsome of the science behind some of the traditional principles, butoften I refrain from doing this or doing this in a less thancomprehensive way to keep with the Taoist tradition of not arguingbut letting the facts and truths speak for themselves.

The two essential components behind mypractices are to build up the life force and discharge the toxins,poisons, and impurities from the body, so we get rid of disease andbecome stronger and stronger, relying completely on ourselves. Ifyou are able to grasp the core on sleeping, exercise, food, and sexand avoid further damage from the environment and your lifestyle,you can grow enough life force to overcome practically all yourdiseases over time. If you are able to grasp the core of themeditation practice, you can grow enough life force to reverseaging in a measurable way over time, and you can even live beyondthe Taoist life span of 120 years. When you are 120 years old, youwill still be able to run around and live completely independently,just like an average fifty- or sixty-year-old. An ordinary personmay live to 120 years, but he or she is more likely to bewheelchair-bound and dependent on others by that time. Moreover,you can even achieve higher levels than just living a very healthyand very long life. In fact, there is practically no limit on howmuch you can achieve further down the Taoist path.