The Longevity Plan

 The Longevity Plan: Seven Life-Transforming Lessons from Ancient China. By John D. Day, M.D., Jane Ann Day, and Matthew LaPlante. Harvard Paperbacks, 2018, 304 pages. VSCL.  

The Seven Lessons are:
1. Eat good food.
2. Master your mind-set.
3. Build your place in a positive community.
4. Be in motion.
5. Find your rhythm.
6. Make the most of your environment.
7. Proceed with purpose. 

Dr. Day, a cardiologist and electrophysiologist from Utah, stayed and studied at the Longevity Center in Bapan, CR China.  He has thoroughly researched the topic and tells us how he applied to his own life.

A Will for the Good

"Laetus in praesens animus quod ultra est oderit curare et amara lento temperet risu.  Nihil est ab omni parte beatum.
Joyful let the soul be in the present, let it disdain to trouble about what is beyond and temper bitterness with a laugh.  Nothing is blessed forever."
-  Horace

"To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action.  Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course.  Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you.  Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude."
-  Albert Schweitzer  

"The clearest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness."
-  Michel Montaigne  

"All our moments are last moments.   We abide in the forever leaving of our own coming?  We can put our hands together, palm to palm, settling here on the last leaf of our brief flight, and bow to the wonder of it."
-  Jen Jensen, Bowing to Receive the Mountain, 1997 

Ten Positive Energy Prescriptions
"1.  Awaken intuition and rejuvenate yourself.
2.  Find a nurturing spiritual path.
3.  Design an energy-aware approach to diet, fitness and health.
4.  Generate positive emotional energy to counter negativity.
5.  Develop a heart-centered sexuality.
6.  Open yourself to the flow of inspiration and creativity. 
7.  Celebrate the sacredness of laughter, pampering, and the replenishment of retreat.
8.  Attract positive people and situations.
9.  Protect yourself from energy vampires.
10.  Create abundance."
-  Judith Orloff, M.D..  
   Positive Energy, 2004 

Cheerfulness and Gratitude

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

The Good Life: Virtues

Aging Well

Aging Well

"Ten Ways to Inspire People to Keep Fit:  Be a role model; make fitness fun; be both active and productive; make workouts short and sweet; extol the benefits; train for a charity event together; set short-term goals; offer to be a workout partner; use inspirational music; don't preach, lecture or nag. "
-  American Council on Exercise  

 

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.”
-  Sophia Loren  

 

"So far as motivational status is concerned, healthy people have sufficiently gratified their basic needs for safety, belongingness, love, respect and self-esteem so that they are motivated primarily by trends to self-actualization (defined as ongoing actualization of potentials, capacitates and talents, as fulfillment of mission (or call, fate, destiny, or vocation), as a fuller knowledge of, and acceptance of, the person's own intrinsic nature, as an unceasing trend toward unity, integration or synergy within the person. .. These healthy people are there defined by describing their clinically observed characteristics.  These are:
1.  Superior perception of reality.
2.  Increased acceptance of self, of others and of nature.
3.  Increased spontaneity.
4.  Increase in problem-centering.
5.  Increased detachment and desire for privacy.
6.  Increased autonomy, and resistance to enculturation.
7.  Greater freshness of appreciation, and richness of emotional reaction.
8.  Higher frequency of peak experiences.
9.  Increased identification with the human species.
10.  Changed and improved interpersonal relations.
11.  More democratic character structure.
12.  Greatly increased creativeness.
13.  Certain changes in the value system."
-  Toward a Psychology of Being.   Abraham Maslow.  New Jersey, Van Nostrand, 1962.  3rd Edition, Wiley, 1998.  320 pages.  ISBN: 0471293091. pp.23-24

 

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 5, By Lao Tzu

Daodejing, Laozi
Chapter 5

"Nature is non-benevolent.
It regards the masses as straw dogs.
The Holy Man is non-benevolent.
He regards the masses as straw dogs.
The space between the heaven and the earth is like a bellows;
though unsupported, it does not warp; when in motion the more it expels.
Though words could exhaust this theme, they would not be so profitable
As the preservation of its inner essence."
-  Translated by C. Spurgeon Medhurst, 1905, Chapter 5

"Nature is indifferent to life.
It realizes everything is as a straw dog
(a sacrificial animal-image).
The truly wise are also indifferent to life.
They realize humanity is as a straw dog.
The universe is like a bellows:
empty, yet quite full.
As it proceeds, it produces.
Much talk, much exhaustion.
Keep your thoughts within!"
-  Translated by C. Ganson, Chapter 5 

"Heaven and Earth do not claim to be kindhearted or pitiful.
To them all things and all creatures are as straw dogs brought to the sacrifice and afterwards discarded.
Nor is the Sage kindhearted or pitiful.
To him to the people are as straw dogs.
But the space between Heaven and Earth may be likened to a bellows:
It seems empty, and yet it gives all that is required of it.
The more it is worked, the more it yields.
Whereas the force puffed up by words is soon exhausted.
Better to hold fast to that which dwells within the heart."
-  Translated by Herman Ould, 1946, Chapter 5  


天地不仁, 以萬物為芻狗.
聖人不仁, 以百姓為芻狗.
天地之間, 其猶橐籥乎.
虛而不屈.
動而愈出.
多言數窮.
不如守中.  -  Chinese characters, Chapter 5, Tao Te Ching


t'ien ti pu jên, yi wan wu wei ch'u kou.
shêng jên pu jên, yi pai hsing wei ch'u kou.
t'ien ti chih chien, ch'i yu t'o yo hu.
hsü erh pu ch'u.
tung erh yü ch'u.
to yen shu ch'iung.
pu ju shou chung.
-  Wade-Giles Romanization, Chapter 5, Tao Te Ching


"Heaven and Earth have no humanity;
They regard all things as straw-dogs.
The sage has no humanity;
He regards the people as straw-dogs.
Between Heaven and Earth, it is like a bellows or a flute!
Empty, but not exhausted;
With movement, more comes out.
Too much talk always exhausts;
It is better to keep to the inside."
-  Translated by Yi Wu, Chapter 5


"Heaven and earth are not merciful,
They treat all things as straw dogs;
The sage is not merciful,
He treats the people as straw dogs.
Does not the space between heaven and earth form like a bellows?
It is empty but the air in it can never be exhausted;
The more air it expels, the more comes out.
That is why too many government decrees only result in more failures.
It is better, therefore, to hold fast to moderation and the void."
-  Translated by Gu Zhengkun, Chapter 5


"Heaven and Earth are not humane.
They regard all things a straw dogs.
The sage is not humane.
He regards all people as straw dogs.
How Heaven and Earth are like a bellows.
While vacuous, it is never exhausted.
When active, it produces even more.
Much talk will of course come to a dead end.
It is better to keep to the centre."
-  Translated by Chan Wing-Tsit, 1963, Chapter 5   


"El universo no tiene afecciones humanas:
todas las cosas del mundo son para él como un perro de paja.
El santo no tiene affeciones humanas;
el pueblo es para él como un perro de paja.
El universo es iqual que un fuelle de forja;
vacío, pero no aplanado.
Cuanto máa se le mueve, más exhala,
cuanto más se habla de él, menos se le comprende,
más vale insertarse en el."
-  Translated by Alba, 1998, Tao Te Ching, Capítulo 5 


"Himmel und Erde sind nicht gütig.
Ihnen sind die Menschen wie stroherne Opferhunde, Der Berufene ist nicht gütig.
Ihm sind die Menschen wie stroherne Opferhunde.
Der Zwischenraum zwischen Himmel und Erde ist wie eine Flöte,
leer und fällt doch nicht zusammen;
bewegt kommt immer mehr daraus hervor.
Aber viele Worte erschöpfen sich daran.
Besser ist es, das Innere zu bewahren."-  Translated by Richard Wilhelm, 1911, Chapter 5


"Heaven and Earth are impartial;
They see the ten thousand things as straw dogs.
The wise are impartial;
They see the people as straw dogs.
The space between heaven and Earth is like a bellows.
The shape changes but not the form;
The more it moves, the more it yields.
More words count less.
Hold fast to the center."
-  Translated by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English, 1989, Chapter 5  


"The Sage does not take sides,
He welcomes both saints and sinners.
The Tao works upon man as it works upon the grasses of the fields.
Sages act out of the need for rightness, not purely compassion.
The Tao is like a bellows, even though it appears empty, its workings are obvious,
Yet the more you use it the more it produces, it is inexhaustible.
Yet speaking of it will not increase the comprehension.
Hold to the center path."
-  Translated by John Dicus, 2002, Chapter 5 



Tao Te Ching 81 Website

A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo for each one of the 81 Chapters (Verses, Sections) of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes 25 or more different English language translations or interpolations for that Chapter, 5 or more Spanish language translations for that Chapter, the Chinese characters for that Chapter, the Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin transliterations (Romanization) of the Mandarin Chinese words for that Chapter, and 2 German and 1 French translation of that Chapter.

Each webpage for each one of the 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching includes extensive indexing by key words, phrases, and terms for that Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization. In 2020, I will be improving the indexing.

Each webpage on a Chapter of the Daodejing includes recommended reading in books and websites, a detailed bibliography, some commentary, research leads, translation sources, a Google Translate drop down menu, and other resources for that Chapter. 

An electronic Concordance for all 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching is provided.

Chapter 5, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Concordance for the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

How to Improve Your Mood

Boost Your Mood, Pick Yourself Up
Revitalize Yourself, Banish the Blues  

Be grateful for the good in your life.   
Give yourself permission to be human.
Brighten someone’s day. 
Learn something new. 
Listen to upbeat music.
Do some exercise on a regular basis.
Simplify your life, remove clutter, and clean. 
Go for a walk. 
Enjoy sex and discover romance. 
Get organized.
Do a good deed or volunteer.  
Smile and put on a happy face. 
Indulge your senses. 
Seek and cultivate beauty. 
Take time to breathe deeply. 
Look at some old photos. 
Focus on the positive. 
Forgive yourself. 
Get some fresh air. 
Eat often and eat light. 
Begin a program of meditation or contemplation.
Talk with your physician or counselor.   
Cook and prepare a lovely and tasty meal. 
Eat something nutritious like nuts or fruit. 
Pamper yourself.
Alter your routines in some way. 
Have confidence. 
Talk with your spouse. 
Fake it till you make it. 
Sign a song out loud. 
Tap into your creative side. 
Take up a mind-body practice like Taijiquan, Qigong or Yoga. 
Inhale a calming scent. 
Sit quietly, rest, or sleep. 
Brainstorm a problem for solutions. 
Avoid bad or negative companions, and find good friends. 
Watch a good non-violent movie. 
Work in the garden. 
Cool down strong emotions. 
Take some vacation time for relaxation and retreat. 
Look on the Bright Side.
Small steps of progress are better than no steps. 
Avoid watching the news for a week. 
Don’t take yourself too seriously. 
Focus on past successes, not failures. 
Create a wish list and make one wish come true.
Explore ways to boost your self-esteem. 
Focus on what you can control and what you can change.
Get some more sunlight on your body. 
Choose your attitude and how you will react to life's events. 
Spend less, avoid shopping. 
Stop all cussing, swearing, or rude language. 
Keep a journal or express yourself in writing. 
Go easy on yourself and yield.  
Count your blessings. 
Spend some time with children. 
Take a long shower or refreshing soaking bath. 
Get relevant and accurate information. 
Chat with a friendly person or neighbor.
Things change and time heals. 
Adapt, adapt, adapt. 
Agree to disagree; you don’t need to win every argument.   
Think fast.
Consider vitamin or herbal supplements that lift mood. 
Seek professional help for serious mental health problems. 
Read something inspiring. 
Avoid comparing yourself to others, and envy is a waste of time.
Try praying or chanting. 
Evaluate and revise your goals. 
Don't sweat the small stuff. 
Pet your dog or cat and care for them. 
Get a massage.
Enjoy a non-competitive sport. 
Try fasting or staying up all night. 
Donate your stuff, your skills, or your time.   
Forgive and forget. 
Dance till you are tired. 
Punch a bag or bang on a drum. 
Stop using any recreational drugs. 
Spend some time with children. 
Abandon false ideas and unrealistic aims. 
Enjoy a refreshing drink. 
Make someone laugh. 
Allow yourself to be eccentric, and enjoy some silly thoughts.
Have a bowl of soup or a cup of tea. 
Less talking and more doing. 
Get up, dress up, and show up. 
Observe nature carefully and respectfully.
Visit your public library and borrow some beautiful books. 
Be less self-centered and selfish. 
A spiritual advisor, rituals, or religious beliefs can sometimes help.
Love expands your horizons of caring and happiness. 
Accept the fact that some things are broken and can't be fixed.
Memorize and inspirational saying, prayer, poem or quote. 
Call or visit a sick person. 
Play a game. 

By Mike Garofalo
Valley Spirit Center
Red Bluff, California, 2011 

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

Ways to Lift Your Spirits (3 pages, PDF Format)

Virtues and Good Character

Fitness and Well-Being

Sit and Listen

"Teach us to care and not to care.
Teach us to sit still."
- T.S. Eliot

"You are sitting on the earth and you realize that this earth deserves you and you deserve this earth.  You are there - fully, personally, genuinely."
-  Chogyam Trungpa

"Remain sitting at your table and listen. 
Do not even listen, simply wait, 
be quiet still and solitary. 
The world will freely offer itself 
to you to be unmasked, 
it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy 
at your feet."
-  Franz Kafka


"Sit quietly
focus and forget
rest with the great achievement.
The ancient child asks
"what is the great achievement?"
It is beyond description in any language
it can only be felt intuitively
it can only be expressed intuitively.
Engage a loose, alert, and aware
body, mind, and sound
then look into the formless
and perceive no thing.
See yourself as a sphere
small at first
growing to encompass
the vastness of infinite space.
Sit quietly
focus and forget then
in a state of ease and rest
secure the truth of the great achievement.
Employing the truth will not exhaust its power
when it seems exhausted it is really abundant
and while human art will die at the hands of utility
the great achievement is beyond being useful.
Great straightness is curved and crooked
great intelligence is raw and silly
great words are simple and naturally awkward.
Engaged movement drives out the frozen cold
mindful stillness subdues the frenzied heart.
Sit quietly
focusing
forgetting
summon order from the void
that guides the ordering of the universe."
-  Tao Te Ching, Chapter 45, Translated by John Bright-Fey, 2006


"There are many matters and many circumstances in which consciousness is undesirable and silence is golden, so that secrecy can be used as a marker to tell us that we are approaching the holy."-  Gregory Bateson, Angels Fear



Sitting in the Garden

Zuowang Meditation

Spirituality and Nature

Bowls of Cherries Coming On

Wise is the person who sees the cherry trees in bloom and does not say "life is not a bowl of cherries."

- Mike Garofalo, Pulling Onions

Rejoice, and Men Will Seek You

"Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain."
-  Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1850-1919

How to Live the Good Life

Virtue Ethics

Hedonism and Epicureanism

Take Nothing for Granted

"Laetus in praesens animus quod ultra est oderit curare et amara lento temperet risu.
Nihil est ab omni parte beatum.
Joyful let the soul be in the present, let it disdain to trouble about what is beyond and temper bitterness with a laugh.
Nothing is blessed forever."
-  Horace

"To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action.  Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course.  Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you.  Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude."
-  Albert Schweitzer  

"The clearest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness."
-  Michel Montaigne  

"All our moments are last moments.   We abide in the forever leaving of our own coming?  We can put our hands together, palm to palm, settling here on the last leaf of our brief flight, and bow to the wonder of it."
-  Jen Jensen, Bowing to Receive the Mountain, 1997 

Ten Positive Energy Prescriptions
"1.  Awaken intuition and rejuvenate yourself.
2.  Find a nurturing spiritual path.
3.  Design an energy-aware approach to diet, fitness and health.
4.  Generate positive emotional energy to counter negativity.
5.  Develop a heart-centered sexuality.
6.  Open yourself to the flow of inspiration and creativity. 
7.  Celebrate the sacredness of laughter, pampering, and the replenishment of retreat.
8.  Attract positive people and situations.
9.  Protect yourself from energy vampires.
10.  Create abundance."
-  Judith Orloff, M.D.. 
   Positive Energy, 2004 

 

Cheerfulness and Gratitude

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

The Good Life: Virtues

Nothing is Blessed Forever

"Laetus in praesens animus quod ultra est oderit curare et amara lento temperet risu.
Nihil est ab omni parte beatum.
Joyful let the soul be in the present, let it disdain to trouble about what is beyond and temper bitterness with a laugh.
Nothing is blessed forever."
-  Horace

"To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action.  Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course.  Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you.  Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude."
-  Albert Schweitzer  

"The clearest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness."
-  Michel Montaigne  

"All our moments are last moments.   We abide in the forever leaving of our own coming?  We can put our hands together, palm to palm, settling here on the last leaf of our brief flight, and bow to the wonder of it."
-  Jen Jensen, Bowing to Receive the Mountain, 1997 

Ten Positive Energy Prescriptions
"1.  Awaken intuition and rejuvenate yourself.
2.  Find a nurturing spiritual path.
3.  Design an energy-aware approach to diet, fitness and health.
4.  Generate positive emotional energy to counter negativity.
5.  Develop a heart-centered sexuality.
6.  Open yourself to the flow of inspiration and creativity. 
7.  Celebrate the sacredness of laughter, pampering, and the replenishment of retreat.
8.  Attract positive people and situations.
9.  Protect yourself from energy vampires.
10.  Create abundance."
-  Judith Orloff, M.D.. 
   Positive Energy, 2004 

 

Cheerfulness and Gratitude

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

The Good Life: Virtues