Nourish the Upright and Evil of Itself Departs; Cherish the Body and Life Lasts Longer
As a chronic-disease patient and a student of medicine, I am aware of my own various potential risks of cancerous transformation. In the future I may die of one of many cancers—liver, lung, gastric, intestinal, prostate—because for years I have been tormented by related chronic diseases. It is also possible that I will live extremely long, because I have been studying medicine and health preservation to counter the disadvantages of my weak constitution. I have been weak since birth; as a child I wet the bed until about the age of ten, which greatly troubled and shamed me.
But for years I have not tormented my body and mind, so that I am now a typical case of reverse aging. For a time I studied Buddhism at Beijing Longquan Monastery, doing volunteer work on the construction site of the monastery's ordination platform, carrying building materials. Compared with the many volunteers on that site, I was one of the strongest. One day a construction worker on the site asked me, "Young fellow, shouldn't you be in school? Is it appropriate for you to keep coming here to volunteer?" I smiled and told him I was already thirty-six, my son was ten years old, and he was almost graduating from primary school; what school would I go to? The worker was clearly taken aback, and several of the monks and volunteers working nearby were also surprised, because I look very young—about a college student.
In Nanjing there is Professor Zheng Ji, who lived to 110. He too was weak and sickly all his life, and in his sixties underwent a major stomach operation, staying in hospital for more than four months. Born in 1901, he did not pass away until 2010. An operation requiring four months of hospital stay is no minor operation. But because he was good at adjusting his physical and mental state, the old master did not pass away until the age of 110. The Tang-dynasty TCM physician, the Medicine King Sun Simiao, was terribly sick in his youth; his parents took him everywhere seeking doctors, and the family was bankrupted treating him. Clearly his constitution was very weak. Later he roused himself to study medicine and Buddhism, and lived to over a hundred. Some books say he lived to 160, others say over 120; but one thing is certain: from official historical sources, his age was definitely over 106.
In 2012 I attended a gathering organized by the Sina cancer community and met a cancer patient from Shanghai named Yang Liu. That lady looked extremely young to me, at most in her early thirties. A couple of days ago I glanced at her blog and saw that her son has already started working. My own father-in-law, who barely ever caught a cold in his life, died of a stroke at sixty.
A person's lifespan and whether or not he gets sick, and what he gets, seem not really to have much to do with it. Once I saw a 106-year-old cancer patient on an interview show, chatting about her experience of getting cancer in her sixties; her hearing and eyes were sharp, her reactions quick, which was astonishing. Often, long-ill people finally look lightly on life and death, on the empty fame and profit of the world, and as a result live longer than those who were always healthy.
Health and ill health are relative. A person who looks quite healthy, and whom medical equipment shows no problem, often does not cherish his body and recklessly ruins it, bouncing around most wildly in society. A person who is not healthy, but like a poor man who lives frugally yet has enough to eat and wear, constantly remembers not to dissipate his limited strength and energy, preserves his health and cherishes his life, and also lives a long time. Lifespan is like money in the bank: although the rich man has money, if he spends lavishly, he can soon be reduced to poverty; the poor man splits every penny in two and never lacks money.
The body's healthy qi, as long as it is carefully maintained and well nourished, can ensure a person is full of spirit even if limited. There is a saying in the TCM classics: nourish the upright, and evil of itself departs. Whether in a person's inner heart or his body, as long as one can consciously "nourish the upright," the pathogenic evil will gradually be overcome by the healthy qi within body and mind. As for this nourishing, I do not advocate using drugs or supplements; rather, it relies on moderate exercise and reflection. Stay away from noise and vanity, stay away from right and wrong, maintain only the simplest human relationships, attend few gatherings that breed greed, anxiety, and worry. Keep the diet varied, without preference, exercise moderately, and ensure sufficient sleep. Then, although we have only a little "healthy qi," because we dissipate so little, it can in fact be used for a very long time, and we live long.