The Eternal Quest for Immortality
Throughout the ages, people have dreamed about the possibilities of living forever.
Immortality has always been exclusively reserved for various gods and mythical beings, but we like to dream that there is some secret source that holds the key to keeping our physical bodies alive for hundreds of years.
Why do we hold onto this idea so much?
Maybe it's because this earth realm is the only one we know. Life is full of people and animals we love. We enjoy the beauty of nature and being a member of a
community. While immortality isn't the kind of thing that most people contemplate on a daily basis, when it does pop up in our minds, we often fantasize what we would do if we could live forever.
Let's be honest. You and I just love being here on this planet and we wanna stick around for as long as humanly possible.
That's not so bad, is it?
In fact, it's a perfectly human desire.
While most people have to make due with their private fantasies, there have been a few people throughout time that have had the money and power to try and find the hidden secret to immortality. One such person was a Chinese King named Qin Shi Huang. He ruled ancient China from 246 B.C. to 221 B.C.
Qin Shi Huang was a highly effective ruler and was responsible for the unification of China. He considered himself to be the First Emperor and was skilled at economics and politics. In 1974, his mausoleum was discovered and people marveled at the amazingly lifelike 8,000 terra cotta soldiers created to protect his tomb.
But, this emperor never intended to be laid to rest in that tomb. In addition to his being a very important ruler in his day, he was also known for being very afraid of death and evil spirits. These fears made him extremely eager to try all sorts of remedies that promised to make him immortal.
During his earlier travels, he had met a magician named Anqi Sheng, who claimed to be 1,000 years old. The emperor never forgot this extraordinary man and decided that he must send out an expedition of ships to seek out this magician. Anqi Sheng had told Qin Shi Huang about the elixir of life and now he wanted his people to bring this magic potion back to him so that he too could live forever. Hundreds of young men and women were sent out in search of the mystical Mount Penglai where Anqi Sheng was thought to reside. Unfortunately for the emperor, they never returned.
Ironically, Qin Shi Huang ended up dying from taking mercury pills given to him by his court physicians. The physicians were trying their best to come up with a
formulation that would make their leader immortal. Oh, well.
Centuries later, history would record the quest of Ponce de Leon and his famous search for a similar elixir of life.
So far, no one has found this special elixir, so should we humans just give up and quit trying?
We could, but that would take all the fun out these sorts of quests, now wouldn't it?
What Immortality is Really About
A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses. – Hippocrates (Ancient Greek Physician)
Okay, if immortality isn't about finding that secret elixir that regenerates youth forever, what does it mean for you in an everyday sense?
Maybe it's about gaining some kind of higher understanding of what it really means to be a human being on this planet. Often we get caught up in life's unavoidable
responsibilities like going to school and getting decent grades, showing up at our job and putting in a full day's work, making sure that pile of bills gets paid on time, taking care of a child or older relative who needs us…we never think about getting sick until it hits us out of the blue.
An illness forces you to take stock of how you've been taking care of yourself like
nothing else does. It has a way of making us face our mortality for either a short time, or a long, extended time depending on what the medical issue is. When you get a bad cold or the flu, all you want to do is find a warm bed and crawl into it, or plop down on a cozy couch.
Sure, the world goes on around you, but you have a hard time keeping up with it. You feel like crap and all of your energy has drained out of your body. You take some cold medicine and hope it gets you through the day, but you're still stuck with a miserable
feeling. Your thoughts wander towards the origins of your current misery. Where did you pick up these stupid cold germs?
Maybe that's not the question you should be asking yourself. Maybe you should be asking yourself why you pick up those cold germs. If you take a moment to think about it, you'll realize that you left yourself wide open to receiving those germs.
Have you been running yourself ragged lately?
Is your body getting enough protein and iron?
Have you been eating enough fruits and vegetables?
Are you really stressed out over work or a personal problem?
Are you feeling down or depressed about something?
All of these things can impact your immune system in a negative way. When you get sick you are forced to slow down and take a look at what's going on in your life at the moment. The illness is a sign that something's wrong with the energy around you, and it's causing you to become sick. If you don't want to continue being sick, then you've got to figure out what you're going to do to prevent it from happening again.
Make a decision to learn from your illness so you can start making small changes that can lead to improved health.
The part can never be well unless the whole is well. – Plato (Ancient Greek Philosopher)
Often, when one part of your body breaks down, you tend to focus only on that one part. For instance, when you get a headache, you feel a familiar throbbing pain that makes it hard for you to concentrate on anything else. Technically, the headache is only happening in a small section of your body, but the headache is only a symptom of something much larger.
Because headaches are pretty easy to cure for most people, you grab some pain relief medication and wait for it to be over. However, the real reason why you got that headache remains hidden somewhere inside of your body or outside in your surroundings.
For people who work in high stress conditions, tension headaches are quite common. The stress being absorbed on a daily basis is concentrating into one area of the body. All of this negative energy has to be dealt with in some way, so your body manifests a headache that causes the blood vessels around your temple area to constrict. Blood isn't able to flow freely through those veins so they cause pain to alert you that something is wrong.
The pain medication opens up the vessels and gets the blood flowing again. However, that's an artificial fix. Unless you take a look at the whole picture and deal with the cause of your headaches (excessive stress), they will keep coming back again and again.
The medication can only treat the temporary physical discomfort, but it does nothing for your stress.
Men worry over the great number of diseases, while doctors worry over the scarcity of effective remedies. – Pien Chiao (Ancient Chinese Physician)
Have you ever watched a medical drama on TV where the doctor looks solemnly at the patient laying in the hospital bed and says, "Sorry, but there's nothing more that I can do."
The patient has one of two reactions. They become visibly upset and begin crying, or a stoic look washes over their face and they turn away and stare at the wall or out the window. This is a dramatic turning point in the story and you get a foreboding feeling that this patient is not going to survive.
Western medical science teaches us from an early age to trust our doctors and always look to them for the answers to our medical problems. But, sometimes they are not able to come up with any type of satisfactory answer for us. That's when it's easy to become scared, because if modern medical science can't fix the problem, then maybe there's no hope of recovery.
Modern medicine has come a long way in the past 50 years. People are surviving diseases and rare illnesses that used to be hard or impossible to treat. Diagnostic equipment has become more sophisticated and easier to use, so that your whole body can be seen scanned in just minutes. It's really impressive. And yet, they still don't have all the answers.
The human body is so complex that it may take another 1,000 years before most
illnesses can be cured by one or two visits to the doctor. So, in the meantime, you need to take more responsibility of your own health.
Leaving your health entirely up to medical science is not a good way to extend your days on earth.
Before healing others, heal yourself. – Gambian Proverb
Some people have such a strong nurturing instinct, that they always put the needs of others before themselves. Being a giver is a great quality to have, and more people should be less selfish, but when it comes to taking care of your health, you should not keep pushing this aside for later. Sometimes later is too late.
Caregivers often feel guilty about taking the time to focus in their own personal needs.
They get such deep satisfaction out of taking care of other people that they have a hard time feeling like their needs are just as important. But, the main problem with this type of existence is that sooner or later the caregiver body breaks down from all of this outward focus.
Their bodies are out of balance because there's too much energy going out and not much coming back in. Most are totally oblivious to this, of course, until they come down with a major illness. Even then, they try to get out of bed and go through their familiar routine.
What they don't realize is that by putting some time into taking care of their own well being, they are giving their loved ones a wonderful gift – the ability to spend more time together. Caregivers should always spend some time rejuvenating their mind and body.
The mind has great influence over the body, and maladies often have their origin there. – Moliere (French Playwright and Actor)
People who walk around with a chip on their shoulder are often good candidates for all sorts of disease and illness. Those who put out a lot of negative vibes by being angry, insensitive and mean have deep seated issues that they're not dealing with.
Something from their past is bugging them and these hidden issues are literally eating away at their quality of life. Oh, I know that it's hard to feel sorry for people like this,
because they spend so much time making other people's lives miserable. The angry, bitter person doesn't really have any good friends because they spend so much time pushing people away. If you get too close, you might discover how insecure they really are inside.
On the flip side, you've got the people who are real downers to be around. That old Debbie Downer skit on Saturday Night Live is so funny because it's true – there are people like this in real life. You don't dislike them like you would an angry person, but their annoying habit of always looking at life from a negative perspective drives you nuts.
Negative people are uncomfortable to be around because they feel unhappy most of the time. Unfortunately, the more they indulge in their negative thoughts and behaviors, the more they attract misery into their lives. Just like you can think yourself well, you can also think yourself sick.
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.
- Siddhartha Bautama Buddha (Ancient Spiritual Teacher and Founder of Buddhism)
Sometimes we can get so caught up in the past that we forget that we've got a present to live in. We all have memories from our past that we treasure. Every now and then we like to pull them out, examine them and reflect on how they make us feel. When we're done, we put them back into our memory banks to enjoy another time.
For some people, the past never goes away, but continues to be with them on a daily basis. When a person feels a great sense of loss, they can sometimes mentally stay in that place that made them happy. They may feel that their present life doesn't have
much to offer them, and cannot compare to those days gone by when everything was so much better.
There are others who spend a lot of their time worrying about what might happen.
They conjure up all sorts of bad scenarios in their head and can't seem to completely relax because they expect these imaginary things to come true.
The only way to truly appreciate life and enjoy it is to be fully present and aware of every moment.
Live in rooms full of light; Avoid heavy food; Be moderate in the drinking of wine
Take massage, baths, exercise, and gymnastics; Fight insomnia with gentle rocking or the sound of running water; Change surroundings and take long journeys; Strictly avoid frightening ideas
Indulge in cheerful conversation and amusements; Listen to music.
- A. Cornelius Celsus (Ancient Roman Encyclopedist)
The above quote came from an Ancient Roman writer, but it sounds like something you could hear nowadays from an enlightened person who is really into enjoying life.
Billions of dollars are spent each year on various health remedies, and yet, here it is all laid out for us in simple language. Most people would find this advice pretty easy to follow.
You can change it up and add your own touches, but basically this is a pretty good blueprint for nourishing your mind and body.
Knowledge is like a garden; if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested. – African Proverb
The best knowledge tends to get passed down throughout the ages. The only reason why we know anything about chakras or yoga is because someone valued these teachings enough to translate them. In our modern era, eastern philosophy on health and spirituality has been embraced and adapted into western culture.
Ancient gurus continue to be influential and inspiring to modern Indian gurus, who then pass along their interpretations to the rest of us. Here is just a small glimpse of some of the modern day teachers of mind and body healing:
Swami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda studied medicine in Tanjore and became a doctor. He practiced medicine in Malaysia for 10 years and always treated the poor at no cost. Gradually, he began to feel that medicine could cure the physical body, but not the spirit. His spiritual quest brought him back to India where he ran a charitable clinic. His yoga focuses on proper breathing, relaxation, a vegetarian diet and positive thinking.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is the founder of Isha Yoga, which promotes the belief that the body is a temple of the spirit. Good health is considered to be important to both
spiritual and physical development. Practitioners believe that Isha Yoga transforms a person's inner chemistry and releases emotional, mental and physical blocks.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is the creator of Transcendental Meditation and the movement that supports his philosophies and techniques. This traditional form of yoga is said to help a person achieve a higher state of consciousness by increasing mental alertness.
While the mind stays alert, the body is completely relaxed.
Bharat Thakur
Bharat Thakur is the founder of Artistic Yoga, which blends ancient yogic techniques with modern experimental methods. By focusing on vigor, stamina, flexibility, body awareness, alertness and meditation, a person can get relief from back and gastric problems, lose weight and increase energy.
Mata Amritanandamayi
Mata Amritanandamayi is a much loved and revered spiritual leader in India. Her nickname is the "Hugging Saint" because she hugs and enjoys every person who attends her talks. She has always felt a deep attachment to her fellow human beings. Her calm voice and soothing words provide a welcome retreat from the stresses and worries in the world.
He who has health has hope, he who has hope, has everything. – Arabian Proverb
Finally, no matter what your current state of health may be, you owe it to yourself to keep reaching for your own version of immortality. Reclaiming your youthful vitality and feeling fantastic is within your reach. Never give up hope that you can achieve this goal.
The 3 Keys to Inner Immortality
You are now stepping into a place where you can begin gaining access to your own immortality. This is the kind of immortality that exists inside of your mind. If you follow these 3 principles, you will gain more inner peace, strength and wisdom.
Meditation
Almost every time you turn on the TV you see an advertisement for a medication that helps to lower high blood pressure or reduce your chances of having a heart attack or stroke. The pharmaceutical companies are selling a ton of these pills and making millions off of people who are suffering the ill effects of a stress-filled lifestyle. Doctors prescribe these pills as a quick way to deal with the problem and reduce the effects of these alarming symptoms before the body reacts in a catastrophic way.
While these pills are helpful to many people, they can have bad side effects that make taking them a risk in itself. I won't go into what these side effects are here but you can
easily go online and research these medications yourself. The point is that taking pills to deal with stress, and stress related illnesses, is usually the first remedy that is offered to those who are having these issues. But, what if you could get your blood pressure down
easily go online and research these medications yourself. The point is that taking pills to deal with stress, and stress related illnesses, is usually the first remedy that is offered to those who are having these issues. But, what if you could get your blood pressure down