Laots’ Special Skill to Longevity

By practicing the special skill of Laots, the great man can enlighten and prolong life; the common man avoid various kinds of disasters; the mean man can be free of being wronged; and the foolish man looking down it will die young.

Laots said: Human body is just like a country, the chest and abdomen are like its imperial palace; limes, the border; joints, the officials; natural fibre line of meat, the thoroughfare; spirit, the monarch; blood, the ministers; Qi, the people, which governs the body as sagacious monarch administers the country and reassures the public by cherishing his people, therefore, the one can keep in good health by cherishing his Qi. The country will perish if the people practice fraud, the man will die if the Qi is exhausted.

So the great man should take preventive measures before getting ill, and not go to see doctor until being sick, thus we can see health is easy to lose but hard to keep, Qi is easy to be muddled but hard to clear. The country can be stabilized if we can judge the hour and size up the situation, one can be long-living if he can restrain his desire.

The great man being familiar with the skill of keeping in good health should prolong life by overcoming the six afflictions, but how can overcome the six afflictions? The six corresponding rules should be abided: 1.not seek fame or wealth; 2.ban the sensual and sound; 3.not be greedy for money;4.eat only light food.5.not give flattery or take rash;6.be away from envy. The aim of keeping in good health can be achieved if we can abide by the six rules, if we can’t, we’ll attend to trifles to the neglect of essentials even if having mysterious theory, reciting scriptures, eating delicious and breathing the fresh air, which can’t prolong our lives.

This above shows that we should think less, desire less, laugh less, talk less, delight less, anger less, amuse less, worry less, have hobby less, detest less, make trouble less, scheme less.

Thinking more will do harm to spirit; desiring more will be weary in mind; laughing more, turn the viscera over and over, talking more, consume Qi; delighting more, catch cold in bladder; angering more, wide the natural fibre line of meat; amusing more, make the mind to become evil easily or unrestrained; worrying more, sap the will to make progress; keeping constantly on the run, block the channels; hating more, weaken vitality; Being adept at scheming more, lose wisdom. All these above wear one’s life out more seriously than sharp weapon; erode the spirit than jackals and wolves.

Don’t sit long, walk long, watch long or listen long. Don’t force yourself to eat, which will be harmful to your spleen; or force yourself to drink, which will harm your stomach. We should take part in labor frequently, but not be exhausted; and have dinner only underfed. Don’t be on an empty stomach in winter’s morning, or full in summer’s evening. Don’t get up before cockcrow or after sunrise.

If the mind if clear and the spirit is peace, real spirit will stay at his original position, Qi will be regular and body can’t be harassed by the foul. If we have fraudulent intentions, the spirit will be sad; on the contrary, will weep if we want to excel others. To insult others will shorten ages, kill sentiment beings must die young. The good side of spirit will be happy if we do a good deed, the evil side of spirit will be happy if we do a evil deed. Both our body and mind will be at peace if we can be open-minded, our names will be added to book for the living person and cancelled from book for dying person. All mysterious of longevity are contained in it.

Annotation: This essay expounded the way of keeping in good health, explained the function of spirit and Qi, pointed out that the six afflictions should be overcome, stressed the importance of “the eleven less”, and the corresponding harmfulness, which is very tallied with the traditional Chinese classical secret on Xing and Ming, and we hope everybody can study it.

Selected from Popular Qigong