Longevity  is still an
individual achievement; it comes primarily to those whose expectations are
high enough to reach for it. America could become a land where no one
ever grows feeble and crippled by age, but for that to happen,  we need to
see the entire human life cycle as a rising curve. Today , fortunately , few
“normal” signs of aging have gone unchallenged, and major studies have
proved that we have expected far too little of the aging body , which holds
great potential for improvement at very advanced ages. Not Older, Better
In 1958, a uniqu e project began in Baltimore, where eight hundred men and
women between the ages of 20 and 103 volunteered to be examined as they
aged. Each returned every year or two to go through an extensive battery of
tests. The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, as it is officially known,
grew to be the most famous of its kind. Its basic purpose was to determine
how different bodily organs change over time. Hundreds of separate
findings have emer ged, and in general they fully support the optimism of
the new old age. Some key findings:
• As people age, their physical status varies widely from individual to
individual, and by the time they reach 80 and 90, the differences havegrown to be tremendous. • While physical performance always declines over time as measured
in a group, this does not alwa ys hold true for each person. Some
people manage to retain lung capacity while everyone around them is
losing it; others actually improve in kidney function or the amount of
blood their hearts pump with each stroke. In most of these cases, the
person kept up the use of the organ in question; “use it or lose it” was
the key . • Mental function is also mainta ined with use. For instance, someone
who earns his living solving problems tends to retain that ability as he
ages, even though that function declines for the group as a whole. • The most comp lex organs, such as muscles, are the first to diminish. Losing muscle tissue is the main reason why people are unable to
perform as much work as they age. • Being moderately overweight in middle age apparently doesn’ t
shorten one’s life span (this depends, however , on avoiding the
harmful side effects of being overweight, such as diabetes,
hypertension, and congestive heart failure). • Remaining sexually active throughout one’s early and middle years
gives one the best chance of remaining active into old age. Again
there was tremendous variance from person to person. Married men
between ages 60 and 80 might have sex as little as three times a year
or as much as once a week or more. Most subjects believed that
regular sexual activity , however , was good for their health. • When asked to perform light to moderate exercise, men in their
sixties were as efficient as men in their twenties, but the older men
had to use more of their total physical capacity . (The Tufts
researchers found that older bodies benefit just as much from exercise
as do younger ones; the gain in muscle mass from twelve weeks of
weight-lifting was the same for 60-year -olds as for much younger
subjects.) • Old people metabolize alcoho l as well as when they were young,
but its effects get stronger . After taking a drink, an older perso n willshow poorer reaction time, memory , and decision-making than a
younger person. • High levels of cholesterol do not keep rising with age but peak at
about 55 (somewhat earlier for men and later for women). • Although sugar tolerance declines with age, this leads to type II
diabetes only in some people; others do not acquire the disease
despite the change in their body’s ability to use glucose in the
bloodstream. This represents only a fraction of what the Baltimore researchers
discovered, but it is enough to confirm one of the main points I started out
with: Everyone grows more unique with age, and that uniqueness includes
the possibility for improvement on any front. Of 650 men, only 12 actually
managed to improve their kidne y function, while the vast major ity suffered
decline in function or remained  the same, but that small handful is enough
to give us a glimpse of untapped possibilities. The new paradig m tells us that we are constantly making and unmaking
our bodies at the quantum level, which means that we are constantly
unfolding hidde n potential. Some of this potential is nega tive, some
positive. The field takes a neutral attitude; what we wish and expect for
ourselves governs the response  we get. If we consider how to improve
physical and mental function every day for the rest of our lives, three values
emer ge that must be part of everyone’ s intention:
  1.  longevity itself, since life is a primary good
  2.  creative experience, which keeps life interesting and makes us
want more of it
  3.  wisdom, which is the collective reward of long life
It’s impo ssible to set limits on what can be achieved in each area. Creativity
and wisdom inspired Picasso, Shaw , Michelangelo, Tolstoy , and other long-
lived geniuses to the day they died. Verdi wrote one of his greatest operas,
Falstaff,  at the age of 80, and the German naturalist Alexander von
Humboldt comp leted his greatest work, Cosmos,  at 89. There is immense
beauty and dignity in these autumnal achievements; the dome of St. Peter ’sseems even more masterful for the fact that Michelangelo designed it in his
ninth decade. Psychologists who study creativity say that artists and writers often can
produce more new ideas in their sixties or seventies than in their twenties. One interesting variable is that the later you take up any creative pursuit,
the more likely you are to pursue it into old age. Eliot Porter , one of
America’ s premier landscape photographers, did not publish his first picture
until he was past 50; Julia Child came to television when she was past
midlife. In both cases, success  steadily increased through the next three
decades. Creative experience may enhance the structure of the brain itself. Chinese
studies of old people in Shangh ai indicate that less educated people have
higher rates of dementia and Alzheimer ’s disease; the implication is that
educated people, having been trained to use their minds, stimulate healthy
brain activity . PET scans show increased blood flow to the brain during
periods of creative thought; a distinctive EEG of coherent rhythms across
all band s of brainwave activity is associated with the “Aha!” or “Eureka!”
experience that characterizes art and creativity in general. Also, it’s a myth
to think that it harms the brain to get too wrapped up in mental work. As
long as it is enjoyable, concentrated mental activity gives rise to alpha-wave
patterns typical of “restful alertness,” the relaxed but aware state also found
in meditation. Certain desirable neurotransmitters such as serotonin also increase during
pleasurable creative activities (again, the same change is associated with the
restful alertness found in meditation). The neurological picture is still
debatable, but the real-life results—more years of fulfilling existence—are
not. It would appear, then, that to want as much life, creativity , and wisdom
as possib le is very desirable. If your expectations in these areas are low, you
are not likely to exceed them, while setting very high standards makes
every decade worth looking forward to. (I am fond of Robert Browning’ s
line, drilled into my head as a child in India: “A man’ s reach should exceed
his grasp , or what’ s a heaven for?”) A sense of “active mastery…is the ego
state most clearly associated with longevity ,” wrote David Gutmann, aging
researcher at the University of Michigan. This conclusion came after
studying long-li ved people from many diverse cultures and periods ofhistory . Active mastery means having autonomy over one’s life and
circumstances, not power over others. Beyond any body of evidence about
aging and how to prevent it, the single most important factor is that you
make something creative from your existence. The renowned religious writer Huston Smith once declared, “In order to
live, man must believe in that for which he lives.” People languish and die
when their core of belief is gone. The most meaningful thing you can live
for is to reach your full potential. At any given age the body and mind you
experience are but a tiny fraction of the possibilities still open to you—there
are always infinite new skills, insights, and depths of realization ahead of
you. These latent potentials are closed off to the vast majority of people, who
barely have skills to fill sixty-five years of existence. Therefore, it is
extremely important to begin to develop your skills consciously , breaking
free of social expectation and setting yourself the goal of becoming a
master . The underlying reason why old people feel marginal in our society ,
cut off from the mainstream of activity and social value, is that they
themselves do not have a positi ve ideal of the very stage of life they find
themselves in. To help you carve out your own ideal life, I have listed ten
keys to active mastery . They summarize much of what we have learned so
far about aging and awareness. They are also meant to be practical ideals,
ones you can aspire to in action every day (we will detail the kind of action
in the “In Practice” section that follows). TEN KEYS T O ACTIVE MASTER Y
1. Listen to your body’ s wisd om, which expresses itself through
signals of comfort and discomfo rt. When choosing a certain behavior ,
ask your body , “How do you feel about this?” If your body sends a
signal of physical or emotional distress, watch out. If your body sends
a signal of comfort and eagerness, proceed.2. Live in the present, for it is the only moment you have. Keep  your
attention on what is here and now; look for the fullness in every
moment. Accep t what comes to you totally and completely so that
you can appreciate it, learn from it, and then let it go. The present is
as it should be. It reflects infin ite laws of Nature that have brought
you this exact thought, this exact physical response. This moment is
as it is because the universe is as it is. Don’ t struggle against the
infinite scheme of things; instead, be at one with it. 3. Take time to be silent, to meditate, to quiet the internal dialog ue. In
moments of silence, realize that you are recontacting your source of
pure awareness. Pay attention to your inner life so that you can be
guided by intuition rather than externally imposed interpretations of
what is or isn’ t good for you. 4. Relin quish your need for external approval. You alone are the
judge of your worth, and your goal is to discover infinite worth in
yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks. There is great freedom in
this realization. 5. When you find yourself reacting with anger or opposition to any
person or circumstance, realize that you are only struggling with
yourself. Putting  up resistance is the response of defenses created by
old hurts. When you relinqui sh this anger , you will be healing
yourself and cooperating with the flow of the universe. 6. Know that the world “out there” reflects your reality “in here. ” The
people you react to most stron gly, whether with love or hate, are
projections of your inner world. What you most hate is what you
most deny in yourself. What you most love is what you most wish for
in yourself. Use the mirror of relationships to guide your evolution. The goal is total self-knowledge. When you achieve that, what you
most want will automatically be there, and what you most dislike will
disappear . 7. Shed the burden of judgm ent—you will feel much lighter . Judgment impo ses right and wrong on situations that just are. Everything can be understood and forgiven, but when you judge , you
cut off understanding and shut down the process of learning to love.In judging others, you reflect your lack of self-acceptance. Remember
that every person you for give adds to your self-love. 8. Don’t contaminate your body with toxins, either through food,
drink, or toxic emotions. Your body is more than a life-su pport
system. It is the vehicle that will carry you on the journey of your
evolution. The health of every cell directly contributes to your state
of well-being, because every cell is a point of awareness within the
field of awareness that is you. 9. Replace fear-motivated behavior with love-motivated behavior . Fear is the product of memory , which dwells in the past. Remembering what hurt us before, we direct our energies toward
making certain that an old hurt will not repeat itself. But trying to
impose the past on the present will never wipe out the threat of being
hurt. That happens only when you find the security of your own
being, which is love. Motivated  by the truth inside you, you can face
any threat because your inner strength is invulnerable to fear . 10. Understand that the physical world is just a mirror of a deeper
intelligence. Intelligence is the invisible organizer of all matter and
energy, and since a portion of this intelligence resides in you, you
share in the organizing power of the cosmos. Because you are
inseparably linked to everything, you cannot afford to foul the
planet’ s air and water . But at a deeper level, you cannot afford to live
with a toxic mind, because every thought makes an impression on the
whole field of intelligence. Livin g in balance and purity is the highest
good for you and the Earth. Life is a creative enterprise. There are many levels of creation and therefore
many levels of possible mastery . To be completely loving, nonjudgmental,
and self-accepting is an exalted goal, but the important thing  is to work
from a concept of wholeness. Because society lacks a vision of the road’ s
end, the eminent psychiatrist Erik Erikson laments, “Our civilization does
not really harbor a concept of the whole of life.” The new paradigmprovides us with such a concept , knitting body , mind, and spirit into a unity . The later years should be a time when life becomes whole. The circle closes
and life’s purpose is fulfilled. In that regard, active mastery is not just a way
to survive to extreme old age—it is the road to freedom. OceanofPDF .comIN PRACTICE:
Breath of Life
In its most complete sense, active mastery means handling the whole of life. It is a process of integration, for ordinarily many aspects of the mind are
quite separate from and out of tune with the body , and both are separate
from spirit. Sitting quietly and being aware of yourself, you will notice that
your perception is taken up with mental “noise” (random thoughts,
emotions, memo ries) and occasional physical sensations that may or may
not have  anythi ng to do with what is going on in your mind. Usually the
perception of spirit is completel y lost or ignored; even in moments of silent
witnessing, those welcome pauses when one is detached from the common
turmoil of mental events, most of us do not recognize that we are contacting
our essential selves. Bringing all these ingredients back into unity isn’t possible on either the
mental level or the physical level alone. Paying attention to one
automatically tends to exclude the other . Unity can be accompli shed at very
deep levels of awareness through meditation, when the duality of mind and
body is transcended, but meditation is restricted to the special time set aside
for it. How do we integrate the remaining hours of our active daily lives? Thousands of years ago the ancient Indian sages gave an answer in the
form of Prana,  the subtlest form of biological energy. Prana is present in
every mental and physical event; it flows directly from spirit, or pure
awareness, to bring intelligence  and consciousness to every aspect of life. You sometimes see Prana defined as “life force” or “life energy,” but what
is more importa nt than a definition is to get experiential knowledge of it. If
you can experience Prana, you can begin to nurture and preserve it. The
critical importance of life energy has been recognized in many culturaltraditions; the Chinese know it as Chi and control its flow through
acupuncture, meditation, and specialized exercises such as tai chi. Other
names for the breath of life appear in Sufism, mystic Christianity , and the
teachings of ancient Egypt. What is universally agreed on is that the more
Prana you have, the more vital your mental and bodily processes. Balanced
Prana gives rise to the following qualities:
RESUL TS OF BALANCED PRANA
Mental alertness Proper formation of tissues
Responsive nervous system;
good motor coordinationSound sleep
Balanced bodily rhythms
(hunger , thirst, sleep,
digestion, elimination, etc. )Strong disease immunity
Enthusiasm Physical vitality
Spiritual realization Sense of exhilaration
These are the natural qualities of human life when it is balanced and
whole. Depleted Prana is directly linked to aging and death. Nothing can
remain alive when Prana is absent, because Prana is intelligence and
consciousness, the two vital ingredients that animate physical matter . The
experience of Prana can be had in many ways: When you are flushed with
sudden energy, feel the inrush of sudden alertness and clarity , or simply
perceive that you are “in the flow,” your attention has been draw n to Prana. Some people sense it as a streaming or buzzing energy in their bodies. These sensations tend to get passed of f as something else (ringing in the ear ,
tingling nerves, increased circulation of blood), but that is only a reflection
of how we were taught to perceive our bodies. In India the body is perceived first as a product of consciousness and
only secondarily as a material object. Conserving Prana is considered
extremely impo rtant, and the ancient teachings give the following basic
rules to ensure balanced and vital Prana in the body at all ages:Diet. Eat fresh produ ce, preferably home grown. The highest Prana is in
food eaten straight from the garden. Stale food rapidly loses its Prana; in
fact, anything stale, musty , or moldly indicates the absence of life energy
and should be avoided. Processed food is also very low in Prana. Drinking
water should be pure; the best is spring water or mountain water from
melted snow . Polluted water is deficient in Prana. Exercise. Physical activity increases Prana by bringing energy into the
body , unless carried to the point of exhaustion. Exhaustion and fatigue are
critical signs that Prana has been depleted. (In Western medicine we
recognize this change as well; when exercise is carried beyond  the body’ s
oxygen reserves , it has to gain energy by metabolizing its own tissues. See
the discussion of catabolic and anabolic metabolism, this page –this page .) Breathing. The body’ s main source of Prana is through the breath, which on
a gross level brings in oxygen and on a subtle level brings in life energy. Prana is thus literally identified  with the breath of life. The ancient sages
considered the quality of a perso n’s life to be reflected in the quality of his
breathing. When  breathing is refined, slow, and regular , the circulation of
Prana is reaching all levels of body and mind, promoting a state of complete
balance. Behavior . Actions  can damage or nouris h the body’ s Prana. Harsh, tense,
conflicted behav ior (what we today call stressed behavior) disturbs the flow
of Prana. Refined behavior that comes from a sense of ease and self-
acceptance promotes balanced Prana. The attitude of nonviolence (Ahimsa ),
sometimes calle d reverence for life, is at the root of life-nourishing
behavior . Emotions. Four negative emotions—fear , anger , greed, and envy—throw
Prana out of balance and are to be avoided. Positive emotions, particularly
love, increase Prana. Love is considered the most basic emotion that human
awareness can feel; therefore, it is the closest to the source of life. The burst
of well-being you feel when you fall in love is due to the fact that you
unconsciously open the channe ls of awareness that allow more Prana to
flow. Emotions that are repres sed through shame and guilt cause thesechannels to constrict. When Prana is kept from flowing in this way, pockets
of inertia and stagnation develop, eventually promoting disease. Depression
is a state of almost complete nonflow and is associated with chronic illness,
premature aging, and early death. Thus, a healthy life, as measure d by the conservation of Prana, demands
the following:
•  Fresh food
•  Pure water and air
•  Sunlight
•  Moderate exercise
•  Balanced, refined breath
•  Nonviolent behavior and a reverence for life
•  Loving, positive emotions; free expression of emotion
Think of the difference between a salad fresh-picked from your garden
and one made from the same vegetables bought in the supermarket. Contrast a picnic in the mountains with lunch at a hambur ger stand, or the
taste of cool well water with water from a city tap. Freshness indicates the
presence of Prana; staleness indicates its absence. The factor least understood in our culture is balanced breath, which in
India is considered the most important. The word breath implies more than
the physical act of drawing air in and out of the lungs. Breath is the junction
point between mind, body , and spirit. Every change of mental state is
reflected in the breath and then in the body . Gross indications such as
posture as well as distinct bodily sensations are directly related to one’s
style of breathing. Changes of feeling are registered immediately in the pattern of breathing. Anger produces shallow inhalation and strong, panting exhalation. Fear
creates rapid, shallow , ragged breathing. Sorrow creates spasmodic, broken
breathing—the kind that arises when you are sobbing. On the other hand,
positive emotion s such as joy induce more regular breathing as the chest
cavity relaxes. In moments when the mind stops, struck with beauty or
revelation, so does the breath—that’ s what people are referring to when
they say that looking into the Grand Canyon for the first time isbreathtaking. At a subtler level, entering into the silence of deep meditation
slows the breath, and what spiritual masters call “the rapture of God”—
contemplating Spirit directly—is reflected in little or no breathing. This phenomenon also works in reverse—changing the breathing pattern
also causes altered emotions. As a young intern on duty in the emer gency
room, I was taught to calm down agitated patients just by sitting next to
them and asking them to breathe slowly , deeply , and regularly  along with
me. As we fell into a relaxed breathing rhythm, our bodies spontaneously
followed suit, and their agitated  emotions were stilled. In the chart on this
page  are some examples from common experience of how the link between
breath, body , and emotion works. As you can see, when joy, love, and compassion are at work, breathing is
at its most spontaneous and relaxed. The various systems of Yoga in India
teach many kinds of highly controlled breathing exercises,  known as
Pranayama,  to balance the breath, but their actual goal is not to produce
controlled or disciplined breath ing under ordinary circumstan ces. Rather ,
paying attention to the breath is a vehicle for releasing stress and allowing
the body to find its own balance. Once in balance, yogic breathing is
spontaneous and refined, so that the refined emotions of love and devotion
can be carried throughout the body at all levels. When your cells experience
the fullness of Prana, they are receiving the physical equivale nt of these
emotions. The following two exercises are for balancing your breathing. They are
not full-blown Pranayamas, which should be done in conjunction with
meditation and Yoga postures, * but when properly done, these exercises
will give you the experience of Prana as a light, sparkling, flowing
sensation in your body . Usually , your muscles will become notic eably warm
and relaxed. Mentally , balanced  breathing is reflected in a sense of calm,
lack of tension, and quietness, as the static of restless thinking gives way to
silence.Exercise 1: Body Br eathing
Sit still in a chair listening to soft music, or outside listening to the wind
in the treetops. As you listen, gently let your attention flow out of your ears
as you easily exhale. Repeat for a minute, then do the same thing through
your eyes, letting your attentio n go outward on the breath, slowly and
gently . Repeat this through the nostrils, the mouth, then sit quietly just
listening to the music with your whole body . Now allow your attention to sink into your chest. Feel where your heart
center is (at the point where the breastbone and ribs join) and breathe out
through it, letting your attention go with the breath. Continue  gently for
another minute,  then sit quietly , aware of your body . This exercise takes
about two minutes but can be extended by doing another cycle or two. This exercise consciously links respiration and the nervous system,
helping to promote their smooth integration. It is a delightful exercise to
conduct outdoors, sitting next to running water or under a tree when the
wind is gently stirring its leaves. Feeling your awareness as it flows out on
your breath gives you a powerful sense of being at harmony with Nature. Exercise 2: The Expanding Light
Stand in your stocking feet with your eyes closed, arms down at your
sides, and vividly relive the sensation of your last exhilarating experience. Recapture the feeling of being happy , vibrant, and carefree. (You can use a
visual image, a loving memor y, a moment of triumph from the past—
anything that brings the sensatio n of exhilaration back to you; do not worry
if it is only faint, just have the intention of being with it.) As you do this, inhale slowly through your nose and begin to spread your
arms out slowly . Imagine that as you inhale, your breath is expanding from
the center of your chest. It is an expanding light that makes your arms float
effortlessly open , and as the light expands, your happy , exhilar ated feeling
expands with it. You can visualize this as a glowing blue-white ball of light
if you want, or just as a sensation. Let the light grow as slowly or quickly as
it wants,  spreadi ng from the center of your heart, reaching out to the tips ofyour fingers, up to your head , and down to your toes. You’ll also be
smiling, so let that grow , too. At the point of maximum extension, start slowly exhaling through your
nose and bring your arms back down to your sides. Do this slowly, taking
longer to exhale than to inhale. Take the expanded feeling/light  back down
into your chest, until it is small and localized in your heart again. As your
arms come back down to your sides, let your head drop forward. Now repeat the exercise on the next breath, expanding the feeling again
—don’ t pay attention to your physical movements, but stay with the feeling. You want to open and close it like a flower with each breath. As you continu e, you can begin to open up even more, throwing your
head back, expanding your chest, and rising on tiptoe on the outward stroke. As you exhale, slump like a rag doll, bending at the knees and waist. Don’ t
speed up the movements, however , just proceed slowly and rhythmically . You’ll notice that this is an extremely pleasant exercise, because as you
open, your body fills with breat h, awareness, and enjoyment all at once—
the sensation is light, warm, tingling. As you close, the body relaxes and
slumps under its own weight, becoming more grounded and still. You are
exploring a complete range of feeling, which allows the subtle breath to
penetrate into every channel. The Vata Connection
As we get older , there is a natural tendency for Prana to diminish; this must
be count ered to preserve youthfulness. In India, longevity was traditionally
assigned to a branch of learning called Ayurveda,  derived from two Sanskrit
roots, Ayus, or “life,” and Veda, meaning “science” or “knowle dge.” This
ancient “scienc e of life” is usually referred to as India’ s traditional
medicine, but there is a deeper spiritual basis for Ayurveda. The most
famous verse from the ancient Ayurvedic texts says, Ayurveda amritanam
(“Ayurveda is for immortality”) . The meaning is twofold: Ayurveda is for
promoting longe vity without limit, and it does this from a belief that life
essentially is immortal.According to A yurveda, the life ener gy, or Prana, is channeled throughout
our bodies by a “wind” known as Vata. Vata is one of the three metabolic
principles ( doshas ) that give form to every living thing, be it a mosquito, an
elephant, a human being, a planet, a star, or the entire cosmos. Vata is
responsible for movement of every kind. In the human body it is divided
into five parts:
Prana V ata regulates the nervous system. Udana V ata regulates cognitive skills, speech, and memory . Samana V ata regulates digestion. Vyana V ata regulates circulation. Apana V ata regulates excretion. All five aspects of V ata are controlled by the first and most important, Prana
Vata, for as the name implies, this dosha brings in Prana, the life force,
which is then distributed to the rest of the body . When Prana Vata is out of
balance, there is general disruption throughout the system. Ayurveda holds
that old age is a particularly sensitive time for such imbalances. Vata is
naturally higher in old age, and if a person has not been careful to keep
Prana V ata in balance, the following symptoms will result:
SYMPT OMS OF V ATA IMBALANCE
Physical symptoms Mental/behavioral symptoms
Dry or rough skin; wrinkles Insomnia
Chronic underweight; muscle
wastingWorry, anxiety
Weak kidneys; loss of
bladder controlDepression
Weak or irregular heartbeat
Fatigue
ConstipationConfusion, restless thoughts
Common arthritis Intolerance to stress
Nonspecific aches and pains Intolerance to coldWeakened immunity
(susceptibility to colds,
pneumonia, and other
infections) 
You’ll immedia tely notice the close match between these disorders of
imbalanced Vata and aging. As the “wind” of the body , Vata is cold, drying,
and piercing. When Vata is aggravated, it is as if a withering wind begins to
stir inside. Usually the first place to which aggravated Vata will travel is the
joints, initiating a range of joint problems beginning with minor aches and
pains (these cause trouble especially during winter , the season that is worst
for Vata disturbance) and ending with degenerative arthritis if the
aggravation persists. Since every cell contains Vata dosha, the effects of aggravating it are not
confined to the joints. The whole body begins to shrivel and dry up; the
bowels become dry, tight, and constipated; racked with insomnia  and worry ,
the person languishes, prey to ever-increasing aches and pains. Millions of
prescriptions for painkillers, tranquilizers, and sleeping pills are written by
baffled doctors who cannot explain why elderly patients start exhibiting
such symptoms , since usually there is nothing organically wrong. In
medical terminology , organic  means that a physical organ shows signs of
disease or malfunction. Physicians tend to dismiss symptoms without
organic cause as psychosomatic or idiopathic (unexplainable). Old people rarely suf fer from just one of the symptoms of V ata imbalance
and many suffer them on a broad scale. If multiple drugs are prescribed for
each symptom, new imbalances  begin to pile up, for the body cannot help
but react with imbalance to painkillers, diuretics, tranquilizers, sleeping
pills, beta blockers, and all the other medications commonly prescribed for
the elderly . Whether we like it or not, a symptom is something the body
wants to express—it is a message—and drugs suppress that expression. How fast you age is intimately linked to the speed and intensity of Vata
aggravation. Some people are extremely prone to Vata imbalance, while
others are not. Some people may get aggravated Vata in their fingers,
leading to arthritis, while others  get it in their intestines, leading to chronic
constipation.What can cause Vata imbalance? Ayurveda follows the principle of
complementarity—“like speaks to like.” What this means is that any quality
Vata dosha possesses will be stimulated by the same quality outside your
body . These qualities are as follows. QUALITIES OF V ATA DOSHA
Dry
Cold
Changeable
Rough
Moving
Light
Subtle
Quick
Leads other doshas
Anything in your environment that contains the above traits will increase
Vata. For example:
Dry weather; dry foods (crackers, cereals, potato chips, etc.) Cold weather; cold food and drink
Changeable: sudden life changes; death in family; loss of job; mood
swings; sudden change of season; etc. Rough-textured materials next to the skin; rough words or behavior
Moving: travel; falling down; physical exercise or labor; exposure to
drafts or wind
Light foods that have a high air content, particularly raw fruits and
vegetables
Subtle changes of mood, a subtle draft
Quick: any activity , physical or mental, requiring speed; being made
to rush
Let me illustrate  how these qualities (called gunas  in Sanskrit) interact. If
my kidneys detect a fluid shortage in my bloodstream, they secrete aspecific chemical messenger—angiotensin 2—which gets carried to the
hypothalamus in the brain and is converted into a mental event: I feel
thirsty . This feeling then prompts me to act by getting a glass of water . In Ayurvedic terms, what has happened is a steady flow of one impulse
of intelligence—V ata—as it registers the needs of 50 trillion cells
simultaneously . Vata has the quality of being dry, and it increases under any
kind of dry condition. Dry crackers, dry desert heat, dry cold from air-
conditioning, and even dry wit all serve to increase Vata. Dryness make us
thirsty because our bodies detect this increased Vata, and the signal will
persist until something wet, such as a drink of water , brings the opposite
quality into play and V ata falls back into line. Vata is the easiest dosha to push out of balance, but also the easiest to
bring back. Since Prana Vata, the most important aspect of this dosha,
regulates the nervous system,  it shifts with the slightest thought or
sensation. By doing the thing s that are needed to keep Prana Vata in
balance, we have a complete system for conserving Prana and defeating the
aging process at an extremely subtle level. This means we must pay some
attention to Vata every day, whic h is in fact quite a natural and easy thing to
do. Vata can be “pacified”—i.e., kept in balance—through various lifestyle
measures. PACIFYING V ATA
To keep  Vata dosha in balance, you need to keep the following  qualities in
mind:
Regular: regular habits; mealtimes; bedtime; work
schedule
Warm: warm, well-cooked food; sunshine;
avoidance of cold food and drink
Nourishing: rich, nourishing, even heavy foods in cold
weather; nurturing emotions
Relaxing: taking time for adequate rest; avoidance of
stressful situations, overexcitement, and
overexertionStable: stable relationships and work; stable home
life
Calming: quiet, orderly work environment; gentle
massage (particularly good is warm oil
massage using sesame oil)
Steady: steady supply of food and water to body; not
skipping meals or going on an empty
stomach
A dosha  is pacified by qualities it lacks. Because Vata tends to make
people erratic, irregular , and inconsistent, it is helpful to coun ter with the
oposite—steadiness and regularity . Small matters such as not skipping
meals and going to bed on time pay large dividends in pacifying Vata. Prolonged expo sure to stress creates serious Vata imbalance, so special
attention has to be paid to giving yourself a quiet, orderly work
environment. Cheerful conditions at work greatly relieve the Vata tendency
to uncertainty and insecurity . When you are under the influ ence of Vata, you will naturally seek
warmth; keeping  warm in winte r and sunbathing at other times  of the year
soothes this dosha. Your diet should emphasize well-cooked, nourishing
foods; Ayurveda considers even heavy , oily food to be good for Vata (which
is why long-cooked stews and soups seem so appealing in winter). A voiding
cold salads, iced drinks, alcohol, and dry or uncooked food in cold weather
will also correct the body’ s tendency to develop aggravated Vata at those
times. In general, stimulants of any kind, including coffee, tobacco, and
alcohol, create V ata imbalance. When out of balance, Vata leads to light, interrupted sleep; this is best
countered by going to bed early and avoiding late-night reading and
television. The body also wants some periods of calmness, relaxation, and
peace during each day. Meditation is ideal, since exposing the nervous
system to deep silence allows it to harmonize all the synchronized bodily
rhythms that Vata regulates. Peaceful, loving family life is an ideal many
people feel has slipped away in recent decades, but from the viewpoint of
Vata dosha, it is vital.Vata has a special affinity with warm oils; daily massage with warm
sesame oil on the feet, head, and lower abdomen is one of the best measures
for relieving deep stresses in the nervous system. The oil should be applied
gently and slowly before the morning bath and again before bedtime. Special attentio n to balancing Vata should be paid whenever you are
recuperating from illness or under emotional stress; suffering from jet leg;
displaying depression, chronic fatigue, and exhaustion; or have been
physically wounded—all of these conditions cause severe V ata disturbance. If you detect chronic symptoms of Vata imbalance,  the follo wing specific
measures should help:
• Include sweet, sour, and salty tastes in your meals; these are
balancing for Vata. This dosha  calls for more sour and salty foods
than does any other . • Avoid bitter , astringent, and pungent (spicy) tastes. Astringent is
counted as a taste in Ayurveda; it is found in dry-tasting foods that
pucker the mouth (beans, lentils, pomegranates, tea). • If you feel uncomfortable living in a dry, cold, windy climate,
consider moving  to a warm one, which is more conducive to Vata
balance. Everyone who lives in a cold climate would do well,
according to Ayurveda, to make sure that their home and workplace
has warm, humidified air. Avoid drafts and prolonged outdoor
exercise in winter . Warm, heart y food eaten at regular interval s is a
good anti-V ata measure in cold climates. • If possible, eat all meals sittin g down in a peaceful, quiet, friendly
setting. Food eaten on the run disturbs Vata. Avoid any kind of
dieting, fasting,  or spending any length of time with an empty
stomach. • If you have an irregular appetite—a common problem when Vata is
imbalanced—try eating several small meals throughout the day (the
last one should be at sundown, or at least a couple of hours before
bedtime). • Avoid prolonged travel without rest in between flights or long
drives. In cases of jet lag, take adequate time to rest and/or sleep as
soon as you have reached your destination. Drink plenty of fluids enroute; herb tea or plain hot water is helpful on jets; liquor and cold
drinks tend to aggravate the jarring ef fect on V ata dosha. • Aroma  therapy or warm baths  with a few drops of fragrant oil help
soothe Vata. Choose scents that are warm, grounding, and soothing,
such as winter green, sandalwoo d, camphor , cinnamon, basil, orange,
rose geranium, and clove. • In cooking, herbs and spices should be sweet and/or heating in
quality: ginger , black pepper , turmeric, cinnamon, mustard, mint,
cayenne, horser adish, cumin, nutmeg, cardamom, green coria nder,
fennel, basil, oregano, rosemary , sage, and thyme. * Pranayama forms an important part of the traditional Ayurvedic procedures I emplo y in medical
practice. The interested reader may refer to my earlier book, Perfect Health  (New York: Harmony
Books, 1990), which details the complete  program of Maharishi Ayurveda, a revival of the most
powerful knowledge from India’ s ancient “science of life.”
OceanofPDF .comPART 
FIVE
Breaking the Spell of Mortality
By your art, Spirit, you defeat  
the withering of death. RIG VEDA
OceanofPDF .comTHE UL TIMA TE BOUNDAR Y to human life is death, and for thousands of years
we have tried to travel beyond that boundary . Despite the obvio us mortality
of our bodies, moments arise when the clear perception of immortality
shines through. The poet Tennyson wrote of experiences he had in his youth
when his individual self “seemed to dissolve and melt away into boundless
being.” This radical shift out of ordinary experience “was not a confused
state,” he recalled, “but the clearest of the clear , the surest of the sure,
utterly beyond words—when death was an almost laughable impossibility .”
Because they are totally subjective, such immortal feelings do not fit in to
the worldview of science, and therefore we tend to label them religious. But
thousands of people have been privileged to catch glimpses of the reality
that encloses space and time like a vast multidimensional bubble. Some
people seem to have contacted this timeless realm through near-death
experiences, but it is also accessible in everyday life. Peeking through the
mask of matter “we have a certain feeling, a certain longing that we can’t
quite put into words. It’s a strivi ng…a wish for something greater or higher
in ourselves.” With these words  the philosopher Jacob Needleman pointed
to what he called “our second world,” which anyone can access under
special conditions. Our first world, Needleman wrote, is “the world we live in every  day, this
world of action and activity and doing,” ruled by everyday thoughts and
emotions. But like flashes of spiritual lightning, there are moments when
the second world makes itself known, full of peace and joy and a clear ,
unfor gettable sense of who we really are—“vivid moments of being present
in oneself,” Needleman called them. If the second world is inside us, so is
the first, because ultimately there is nothing verifiably “out there.”
Everything to be seen, felt, and touched in the world is knowable only as
firings of neuronal signals inside our brains. It all happens in here. Who you are depends on what world you see yourself living in. Because
it is ruled by change, the first world contains sickness, aging, and death as
inevitable parts of the scenery;  in the second world, where there is only
pure being, these are totally absent. Therefore, finding this world withinourselves and experiencing it, even for a moment, could have  a profound
effect on the process of sickness and aging, if not death itself. This possibility has always been accepted as fact in the East. In India and
China, some spiritual masters are believed to have lived hundre ds of years
as a result of achieving a state of timeless awareness. This is considered one
of the options open to a spirit who has attained Moksha,  or liberation,
although not every master takes  the option of extending his life span. In the
West, such powers are viewed with extreme skepticism. But the new
paradigm assures us that there is a level of Nature where time dissolves, or,
to turn it around, where time is created. This level is extremely enigmatic, even by quantum standards, since it
existed before the creation of space and time. The rational mind can’t
conceive of such a state, because to say that something existed before time
began is a contradiction in logic. Yet the ancient sages believed that direct
knowledge of timeless reality is possible. Every generation has affirmed
that assertion. Einstein himself experienced episodes of complete liberation
from space-time  boundaries: “At such moments one imagines that one
stands on some spot of a small planet gazing in amazement at the cold and
yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable. Life and
death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor eternity , only Being.”
It has taken three generations for the new paradigm to show us that Being
is a very real state, existing beyond change and death, a place where the
laws of Nature that govern change are overturned. Death is ultimately just
another transformation, from one configuration of matter and energy to
another . But unless you can stand outside the arena of change, death
represents an end point, an extinction. To escape death ultimately means
escaping the worldview that gives death its terrible sense of closure and
finality . “I’m very afraid  of death,” an Indian disciple once confessed to his guru. “It’s haunted me since I was a child. Why was I born? What will happen to
me when I die?”
The guru considered the matter thoughtfully and said, “Why do you think
you were born?”
“I don’ t understand your question,” the disciple stammered.“Why do you think you were born?” the guru repeated. “Isn’ t it just
something your parents told you that you took for granted? Did you actually
have the experie nce of being born, of coming into existence from a state of
nonexistence, or didn’ t it happen that one day in childhood you asked where
you came from, and your parent s told you that you were born? Because you
accepted their answer , the idea of death frightens you. But rest assured, you
cannot have birth without death. They are two poles of the same concept. Perhaps you have always been alive and always will be. But in accepting
your parents’ system of belief, you entered into an agreement to fear death,
because you think of it as an ending. Perhaps there is no ending— that is the
possibility most worth exploring.”
Naturally the disciple was shocked, because, like the rest of us, he didn’ t
see death as a belief he had agreed to. What the guru was pointing out is
that birth and death are space-time events but existence isn’t. If we look
inside us, we find a faint but certain memory that we have always been
around. To put it another way, no one remembers not existing. The fact that
such metaphysic al issues arise shows how unique humans are. For us, death
isn’t just a brute fact but a mystery , and it must be unraveled  before the
mystery of aging—the process that leads to death—can be solve d. The very
deepest questions about who we are and what life means are wrapped up in
the nature of existence. When the spell of mortality is broken, you can release the fear that gives
death its power . Fear of death reaches much further into our lives than our
conscious minds are willing to concede. As David Viscott wrote, “When
you say you fear death you are really saying that you fear you have not
lived your true life. This fear cloaks the world in silent suffering.” Yet by
seeing through the fear you can turn it into a positive force. “Let your fear
of death motivate you to examine your true worth and to have a dream for
your own life,” Viscott encouraged. “Let it help you value the moment, act
on it, and live in it.”
I want to go even further and suggest that when you see yourself in terms
of timel ess, deathless Being, every cell awakens to a new existence. True
immortality can be experienced here and now, in this living body. It comes
about when you draw the infusion of Being into everything you think anddo. This is the experience of timeless mind and ageless body that the new
paradigm has been preparing us for . OceanofPDF .comTHE METABOLISM OF TIME
One of Einstein’ s brilliant contri butions to modern physics was his intuition
that linear time, along with everything happening in it, is superficial. Time
seems to flow and move; clocks tick off their seconds, minutes, and hours;
aeons of history unfold and disappear . But ultimately , Einstein held, this
vast activity is all relative, meaning that it has no absolute value. John
Wheeler , an eminent physicist,  wrote, “The very idea of space-time is a
wrong idea, and with that idea failing, the idea of ‘before’ and ‘after ’ also
fails. That can be said so simply , and yet it is so hard for the lesson to grab
hold in the world.”
One proof that it hasn’ t yet grabbed hold is that people continu e to age,
following a straight-line process as faithfully as if it really existed. Yet if
Einstein was right, aging is an illusion. It depends on “before” and “after ,”
two concepts that have been bankrupt for almost a century . The mystic Sufi
poet Rumi understood this truth centuries ago when he wrote, “You are the
unconditioned spirit trapped in conditions, the sun in eclipse.” Time and
space are condit ions, and when we see ourselves bound in them, we have
lost touch with reality and bought into a fiction. Einstein displaced linear time with something much more fluid—time
that can contract and expand, slow down or speed up. He often compared
this to subjectiv e time, for he noted that spending a minute sitting on a hot
stove seems like an hour , while spending an hour with a beautiful girl seems
like a minute. What he meant by this is that time depends on the situation of
the observer . For physicists, the notion of expanding and contr acting time
allowed for better calculations of various phenomena occurri ng near the
speed of light, which was Einstein’ s absolute, the universal yardstick that
could not be changed or exceeded. Time had to expand and contract in
order to keep the speed of light constant.We all have a sense that time expands and contracts, seeming to drag one
moment and race the next, but what is our constant, our absolut e? I believe
it is “me,” our core sense of self. To borrow from Einstein’ s example, if two
men are sitting with the same beautiful girl, the time might drag for one,
because the girl is his sister , while it flies for the other if he is in love with
her. This means that each of us has personal control over our sense of time. Consider all the subjective qualities we attach to time. W e say things like:
I don’ t have time for that. Time’s up. Your time’ s running out. How the time flies. Time hangs heavy . I love you so much, time stands still. These statement s do not say anything about time measured by the clock. The clock doesn’ t lie about how much linear time has elapsed “out there.”
But subjective time, the kind that exists only “in here,” is a different matter . All the above statements reflect a state of self. If you’re bored,  time hangs
heavy; if you’re desperate, time’s running out; if you’re exhil arated, time
flies; when you’re in love, time stands still. In other words, whenever you
take an attitude toward time, you are really saying something about
yourself. T ime, in the subjective sense, is a mirror . In medicine we realize that people who don’t have enough time are
probably going to develop health problems. The discovery of Type A
behavior , for example, revealed that heart attacks were linked to a sense that
there’ s never enough time; for a Type A, the next deadline is always a
threat, and his struggle with time  contributes to his ingrained frustration and
hostility . Hostility then sends a message to the heart that constricts blood
vessels, drives up blood pressure, elevates cholesterol levels, and generates
various kinds of arrhythmias, or irregular heartbeat. This happens to more people than just Type A’s. As April 15 approaches,
tax accountants have been observed to develop temporary elevations in
blood pressure and cholesterol that disappear once the tax deadline is past. Their subjective sense of time is enough to put their bodies at risk. Thispoints to a deeper lesson. Ask someone to make an omelet. A skillful cook
can accomplish the task in about two minutes. Now alter the situation
slightly by saying, “Make an omelet, but you only have two minutes to do
it.” This will often make even the accomplished cook feel tense and harried. Time pressure causes stress hormones to be released into the body , which in
turn elevates heartbeat. If the person struggles against this reaction, his
situation only gets worse. Now  his heart has to put up with time pressure
and frustration. When heart patients are given demanding tasks under a
deadline, a significant number grow so agitated that their heart muscles
actually suffer ischemic or “silen t” heart attacks (“silent” in this case means
that damage is occurring but without any sensation of pain). The element of time pressure also alters behavior , attitudes, and
physiological responses. So subjective time can be an incredibly powerful
force. It’s no accident that the word deadline  contains the word dead. A
deadline implies a threat: “If you don’t meet this limit, you’re finished.”
The threat may be subtle or blatant, but it is almost always present. If it
were not, we would not feel anxious under time pressure. Sometimes we
expose the threat more clearly in phrases such as “I’m under the gun” or
“His time is up” (which may sound like a neutral phrase until you
remember that we apply it to people who are about to die). Some people are much more sensitive to time pressure than others. A
nervous cook can get so rattled by the two-minute deadline that he drops the
eggs, burns himself, and can’t accomplish a task at which he excels when
time is not a consideration. Another cook will blossom under the challenge
and finish the omelet even quicker than before. One feels time pressure as a
threat, the other as a challenge. One feels thrown out of control, the other
feels impelled to test his sense of control and improve upon it. All of us, howe ver, feel the pressure of a serious, threatening  deadline
over which we have no control— death itself. If you believe that you have
been allotted a certain span of time for your existence, the deadl ine of death
will exert the same kind of stress as that felt by the nervous cook rushing to
finish his omelet and botching the job. How much better not to feel any
time pressure, to blossom fully despite the fact that death exists. The
attitude that life is a blossoming , not a race, can be achieved. But to do that,
you can’t believe that time is running out. Sending that message to yourbody’ s cells is the same, ultimately , as programming them to age and die. Yet the fact is that linear time is moving inexorably forward, and to
overcome that, we must find a place where a different kind of time, or no
time, can be experienced and internalized. The Quantum Mechanical Body
To a skeptic, this proposition must sound purely subjective, but quantum
events that defy linear time take place within our cells continually . DNA ’s
intelligence operates simultaneously in the past, present, and future. From
the past it takes the blueprint of life, applying to the present only the tiniest
fraction of the information needed for cellular function (perhaps a billionth
of its total data base), and reserving for the future the information that will
be relevant years from now. The double helix is the quantum storehouse of
your future; here time is compressed and locked away until needed. At the
instant you were conceived, your genes gained control of an entire lifetime
of event s that would unfold in precise sequence. Your hands, for example,
emer ged in the womb first as amorphous blobs of cells, then as stubby
knobs that turned into fishlike  fins, amphibian feet, animal paws, and
finally human hands. Those blobs, knobs, fins, feet, and paws are still
present today as stored data in your genes, as are the hands of your infancy ,
childhood, adult hood, and old age. At the quantum level, you live all these
ages at once. Because we are both physic al and quantum, human beings live
multidimensional lives. At this moment you are in two places at once. One
is the visible, sensual world, where your body is subject to all the forces of
nature “out there.” The wind chaps your skin and the sun burns it; you will
freeze to death in winter without shelter; and the assault of germs and
viruses makes your cells sick. But you also occupy the quan tum world,
where all these things change. If you get into the bathtub, your
consciousness doesn’ t get wet. The limitations of physical life count for
much less in the quantum world , and often for nothing. The cold of winter
doesn’ t freeze your memories; the heat of a July night doesn’ t make you
sweat in your dreams.Put together all the quantum events in your cells and the sum total is your
quantum mecha nical body , which operates according to its own unseen
physiology . Your quantum mech anical body is awareness in motion and is
part of the eternal field of awareness that exists at the source of creation. The intelligence  inside us radiates like light, crossing the border between
the quantum world and the physical world, unifying the two in a constant
subatomic dialogue. Your physical body and your quantum mechanical
body can both be called home —they are like parallel universes that you
travel between without even thinking about it. PHYSICAL BODY :
A FROZEN ANA TOMICAL SCULPTURE
“I” sees itself as:
—made of cells, tissues, and or gans
—confined in time and space
—driven by biochemical processes (eating, breathing, digestion, etc.) QUANTUM MECHANICAL BODY :
A RIVER OF INTELLIGENCE CONST ANTL Y RENEWING ITSELF“I” sees itself as:
—made of invisible impulses of intelligence
—unbounded in time and space
—driven by thoughts, feelings, wishes, memories, etc. To all appearances, the physical  body occupies a few cubic feet of space;
it serves as a fragile life-support  system for seven or eight decades before it
must be discarded. The quant um mechanical body , on the other hand,
occupies no well-defined space and never wears out. How big a container
would you need for the dream you had last night, or for your desire to be
loved? Even though a person’ s total genetic material could easily fit into a
teaspoon, what is most important about genes—their intelligence—occupies
no physical space. At the level of the quantum mechanical body every aspect of an
experience is wrapped into one point that is beyond the three-dimensional
world. A photograph of a new bride gives us a literal record of how she
looked, and a tape recording can capture her voice, but these are the crudest
fragments of experience; unless she saves them as mementos, the texture of
her bridal gown and the taste of her wedding cake appear to be lost forever . But in quantum space everything is there at once, and through the simple
act of remembe ring, the bride can recapture a complete world. By some
further miracle, every other experience the bride ever has will be tinged
with this new addition to her memory . Being a married woman becomes a
part of her brain’ s view of her whole life from that moment on.The images imprinted on your quantum mechanical body are as complex
as you are. In short, these images are you. You live out your stored images,
manufacturing your own version of time, and in the process you program
the kind of body required by your version of time. Let me give a concrete
example of how this works. In his fascinating book of psychiatric case studies, Love’ s Executioner ,
Irvin Yalom recounts the story of Betty , a 27-year -old unmarried woman
who came to him for therapy . Betty was a very difficult case from the start. Hard in manner , aloof and complaining, she kept up a litany of grievances
about the fact that no one liked or accepted her. She worke d in public
relations for a large department store, and every slight she suffered from
customers, co-workers, and bosses was dragged into her diatribe. As Yalom listened, he was struck by the odd fact that througho ut Betty’ s
tireless description of her miseries, she never mentioned something very
obvious—her weight. Although barely five feet two inches  tall, Betty
weighed 250 pounds. She and everyone else knew that her appearance was
disturbing, yet she had turned her entire existence into an elaborate game to
disguise this fact. Not mentioning her weight was a shield  of silence,
covering up the deeper pain she could not confront. Yalom realized that it would be too difficult for Betty to tackle her
obesity without first coming to terms with her psychological distress. He
spent months trying to penetrate  her defenses, and eventually they started to
dissolve. One day Betty announced dramatically to Yalom that she was
going to lose weight. She outlined a plan of attack that was remarkably
disciplined and well organized. With great seriousness she launched into a
diet, joining a support group and religiously avoiding any temptation to
binge. She signed up for weekly square-dancing and set up a stationary
bicycle in front of her TV. As the pounds quickly began to come  off, Yalom
noticed a remarkable thing. As Betty lost weight, she began to have vivid dreams and flash backs of
painful incidents in her past. The underlying traumas that Yalom could
hardly budge in therapy were now melting away with the fat. Betty began
having wild mood swings, which at first seemed random. Then Yalom
noticed that they followed a coherent pattern: She was reliving varioustraumas that had occurred when she was at certain weights. It turned out
that Betty had grown steadily fatter since she was 15. The last time Betty had weighed 210 pounds, for example, was when she
decided, at age 21, to move to New York. She had grown up on a small,
poor ranch in Texas, an only child trapped with a depresse d, widowed
mother . On the day that her diet took her back down to 210 pounds, Betty
had a vivid flashback of how difficult leaving home had been. Quite
literally , time was locked up inside her , blended into her cells. “Thus her descent from 250 pounds set her spinning backward in time
through the emotionally charged events of her life: leaving Texas for New
York (210 pounds), her college graduation (190 pounds), her decision to
drop the pre-me d curriculum (and to give up the dream of discovering the
cure for the cancer that had killed her father) (180 pounds), her loneliness at
her high school graduation—he r envy of the other daughters and fathers,
her inability to get a date to the senior prom (170 pounds), her junior high
graduation and how much she had missed her father at that graduation (155
pounds).”
Yalom was quite excited to see how tangible and alive a past memory
could be: “What a wonderful proof of the unconscious realm! Betty’ s body
had remembered what her mind had long forgotten.” I would go even
further and say that her body was a kind of mind in itself, a storehouse of
memories that had taken physic al form in fat cells. Betty’ s experience had
become Betty; instead of just metabolizing hambur gers, pizza s, and milk
shakes, she had metabolized every emotion—sad longings, frustrated hopes,
bitter disappointments—associated with each bite of food. Shedding weight was her deliverance from the past, and as the old body
went, a new Betty was created. She rapidly gained insight into herself; she
rediscovered deeply buried desires and shed tears over hurts she had
concealed from herself for many years. Her body contours began to emer ge:
first a waist, then breasts, then a chin and cheekbones. With her new shape,
Betty found the courage to venture into a social life. Her weight had made
her an outcast since her early teens; now she went on her first date, and men
in her office were attracted to her, no longer put off by her armor of
defensiveness.In the end, the metamorphosis did not fully succeed. The most traumatic
event in Betty’ s life had occur red just before her adolescence, when her
father suffered a long, protracte d death from cancer; she had weighed 150
pounds then and had never managed to get that thin again. Now , as she got
down to 155 pounds, her diet became a grim struggle—her body refused to
let go of even one more ounce, no matter what, and her flashbacks became
harder to face. “Soon we spent entire sessions talking about her father . The time had
come to unearth everything. I plunged her into reminiscence and
encouraged her to express everything she could remember about his illness,
his dying, his appearance in the hospital the last time she saw him, the
details of his funeral, the clothes she wore, the minister ’s speech, the people
who attended.…She felt her loss as never before and, over a two-week
period, wept almost continuously .” This time was very difficult for both
doctor and patient. Racked by nightmares of her father ’s death, Betty said
that she died three times a night; Yalom felt intensely guilty for dragging
her back to a time when she had lost not just her father but her dream of
happiness. Betty balked at uncovering any more buried feelings. It became clear that
her mind could not cross this last, too-threatening threshold. Neither could
her body . Too many griefs and unrealized hopes had turned into Betty . At
about that time she quit both her diet and her therapy . The 150-pound
barrier held, embodying the loss of a father who would never return to her. Yalom regretted that she was only a partial cure, yet he also had to admit his
relief—the ordeal had deeply shaken both of them. Like Betty , everyone becomes their past, but we also have the power to
reverse that process, to free up frozen time and release pent-up memories
that no longer serve us and prevent our happiness. You are constantly
making and unmaking your body at the quantum level. The word unmaking
is necessary because life is not all creation; old, outworn exper iences need
revision as new ones come along.
_OceanofPDF.com_Ageless_Body_Timeless_Mind_-_Deepak_Chopra.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Longevity  is still an
individual achievement; it comes primarily to those whose expectations are
high enough to reach for it. America could become a land where no one
ever grows feeble and crippled by age, but for that to happen,  we need to
see the entire human life cycle as a rising curve. Today, fortunately, few
“normal” signs of aging have gone unchallenged, and major studies have
proved that we have expected far too little of the aging body, which holds
great potential for improvement at very advanced ages. Not Older, Better
In 1958, a uniqu e project began in Baltimore, where eight hundred men and
women between the ages of 20 and 103 volunteered to be examined as they
aged. Each returned every year or two to go through an extensive battery of
tests. The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, as it is officially known,
grew to be the most famous of its kind. Its basic purpose was to determine
how different bodily organs change over time. Hundreds of separate
findings have emer ged, and in general they fully support the optimism of
the new old age. Some key findings:
• As people age, their physical status varies widely from individual to
individual, and by the time they reach 80 and 90, the differences havegrown to be tremendous. • While physical performance always declines over time as measured
in a group, this does not alwa ys hold true for each person. Some
people manage to retain lung capacity while everyone around them is
losing it; others actually improve in kidney function or the amount of
blood their hearts pump with each stroke. In most of these cases, the
person kept up the use of the organ in question; “use it or lose it” was
the key. • Mental function is also mainta ined with use. For instance, someone
who earns his living solving problems tends to retain that ability as he
ages, even though that function declines for the group as a whole. • The most comp lex organs, such as muscles, are the first to diminish. Losing muscle tissue is the main reason why people are unable to
perform as much work as they age. • Being moderately overweight in middle age apparently doesn’ t
shorten one’s life span (this depends, however, on avoiding the
harmful side effects of being overweight, such as diabetes,
hypertension, and congestive heart failure). • Remaining sexually active throughout one’s early and middle years
gives one the best chance of remaining active into old age. Again
there was tremendous variance from person to person. Married men
between ages 60 and 80 might have sex as little as three times a year
or as much as once a week or more. Most subjects believed that
regular sexual activity, however, was good for their health. • When asked to perform light to moderate exercise, men in their
sixties were as efficient as men in their twenties, but the older men
had to use more of their total physical capacity. (The Tufts
researchers found that older bodies benefit just as much from exercise
as do younger ones; the gain in muscle mass from twelve weeks of
weight-lifting was the same for 60-year -olds as for much younger
subjects. ) • Old people metabolize alcoho l as well as when they were young,
but its effects get stronger. After taking a drink, an older perso n willshow poorer reaction time, memory, and decision-making than a
younger person. • High levels of cholesterol do not keep rising with age but peak at
about 55 (somewhat earlier for men and later for women). • Although sugar tolerance declines with age, this leads to type II
diabetes only in some people; others do not acquire the disease
despite the change in their body’s ability to use glucose in the
bloodstream. This represents only a fraction of what the Baltimore researchers
discovered, but it is enough to confirm one of the main points I started out
with: Everyone grows more unique with age, and that uniqueness includes
the possibility for improvement on any front. Of 650 men, only 12 actually
managed to improve their kidne y function, while the vast major ity suffered
decline in function or remained  the same, but that small handful is enough
to give us a glimpse of untapped possibilities. The new paradig m tells us that we are constantly making and unmaking
our bodies at the quantum level, which means that we are constantly
unfolding hidde n potential. Some of this potential is nega tive, some
positive. The field takes a neutral attitude; what we wish and expect for
ourselves governs the response  we get. If we consider how to improve
physical and mental function every day for the rest of our lives, three values
emer ge that must be part of everyone’ s intention:
  1. longevity itself, since life is a primary good
  2. creative experience, which keeps life interesting and makes us
want more of it
  3. wisdom, which is the collective reward of long life
It’s impo ssible to set limits on what can be achieved in each area. Creativity
and wisdom inspired Picasso, Shaw, Michelangelo, Tolstoy, and other long-
lived geniuses to the day they died. Verdi wrote one of his greatest operas,
Falstaff,  at the age of 80, and the German naturalist Alexander von
Humboldt comp leted his greatest work, Cosmos,  at 89. There is immense
beauty and dignity in these autumnal achievements; the dome of St. Peter ’sseems even more masterful for the fact that Michelangelo designed it in his
ninth decade. Psychologists who study creativity say that artists and writers often can
produce more new ideas in their sixties or seventies than in their twenties. One interesting variable is that the later you take up any creative pursuit,
the more likely you are to pursue it into old age. Eliot Porter, one of
America’ s premier landscape photographers, did not publish his first picture
until he was past 50; Julia Child came to television when she was past
midlife. In both cases, success  steadily increased through the next three
decades. Creative experience may enhance the structure of the brain itself. Chinese
studies of old people in Shangh ai indicate that less educated people have
higher rates of dementia and Alzheimer ’s disease; the implication is that
educated people, having been trained to use their minds, stimulate healthy
brain activity. PET scans show increased blood flow to the brain during
periods of creative thought; a distinctive EEG of coherent rhythms across
all band s of brainwave activity is associated with the “Aha. ” or “Eureka. ”
experience that characterizes art and creativity in general. Also, it’s a myth
to think that it harms the brain to get too wrapped up in mental work. As
long as it is enjoyable, concentrated mental activity gives rise to alpha-wave
patterns typical of “restful alertness,” the relaxed but aware state also found
in meditation. Certain desirable neurotransmitters such as serotonin also increase during
pleasurable creative activities (again, the same change is associated with the
restful alertness found in meditation). The neurological picture is still
debatable, but the real-life results—more years of fulfilling existence—are
not. It would appear, then, that to want as much life, creativity, and wisdom
as possib le is very desirable. If your expectations in these areas are low, you
are not likely to exceed them, while setting very high standards makes
every decade worth looking forward to. (I am fond of Robert Browning’ s
line, drilled into my head as a child in India: “A man’ s reach should exceed
his grasp, or what’ s a heaven for. ”) A sense of “active mastery…is the ego
state most clearly associated with longevity,” wrote David Gutmann, aging
researcher at the University of Michigan. This conclusion came after
studying long-li ved people from many diverse cultures and periods ofhistory. Active mastery means having autonomy over one’s life and
circumstances, not power over others. Beyond any body of evidence about
aging and how to prevent it, the single most important factor is that you
make something creative from your existence. The renowned religious writer Huston Smith once declared, “In order to
live, man must believe in that for which he lives. ” People languish and die
when their core of belief is gone. The most meaningful thing you can live
for is to reach your full potential. At any given age the body and mind you
experience are but a tiny fraction of the possibilities still open to you—there
are always infinite new skills, insights, and depths of realization ahead of
you. These latent potentials are closed off to the vast majority of people, who
barely have skills to fill sixty-five years of existence. Therefore, it is
extremely important to begin to develop your skills consciously, breaking
free of social expectation and setting yourself the goal of becoming a
master. The underlying reason why old people feel marginal in our society,
cut off from the mainstream of activity and social value, is that they
themselves do not have a positi ve ideal of the very stage of life they find
themselves in. To help you carve out your own ideal life, I have listed ten
keys to active mastery. They summarize much of what we have learned so
far about aging and awareness. They are also meant to be practical ideals,
ones you can aspire to in action every day (we will detail the kind of action
in the “In Practice” section that follows). TEN KEYS T O ACTIVE MASTER Y
1. Listen to your body’ s wisd om, which expresses itself through
signals of comfort and discomfo rt. When choosing a certain behavior,
ask your body, “How do you feel about this. ” If your body sends a
signal of physical or emotional distress, watch out. If your body sends
a signal of comfort and eagerness, proceed. 2. Live in the present, for it is the only moment you have. Keep  your
attention on what is here and now; look for the fullness in every
moment. Accep t what comes to you totally and completely so that
you can appreciate it, learn from it, and then let it go. The present is
as it should be. It reflects infin ite laws of Nature that have brought
you this exact thought, this exact physical response. This moment is
as it is because the universe is as it is. Don’ t struggle against the
infinite scheme of things; instead, be at one with it. 3. Take time to be silent, to meditate, to quiet the internal dialog ue. In
moments of silence, realize that you are recontacting your source of
pure awareness. Pay attention to your inner life so that you can be
guided by intuition rather than externally imposed interpretations of
what is or isn’ t good for you. 4. Relin quish your need for external approval. You alone are the
judge of your worth, and your goal is to discover infinite worth in
yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks. There is great freedom in
this realization. 5. When you find yourself reacting with anger or opposition to any
person or circumstance, realize that you are only struggling with
yourself. Putting  up resistance is the response of defenses created by
old hurts. When you relinqui sh this anger, you will be healing
yourself and cooperating with the flow of the universe. 6. Know that the world “out there” reflects your reality “in here. ” The
people you react to most stron gly, whether with love or hate, are
projections of your inner world. What you most hate is what you
most deny in yourself. What you most love is what you most wish for
in yourself. Use the mirror of relationships to guide your evolution. The goal is total self-knowledge. When you achieve that, what you
most want will automatically be there, and what you most dislike will
disappear. 7. Shed the burden of judgm ent—you will feel much lighter. Judgment impo ses right and wrong on situations that just are. Everything can be understood and forgiven, but when you judge, you
cut off understanding and shut down the process of learning to love. In judging others, you reflect your lack of self-acceptance. Remember
that every person you for give adds to your self-love. 8. Don’t contaminate your body with toxins, either through food,
drink, or toxic emotions. Your body is more than a life-su pport
system. It is the vehicle that will carry you on the journey of your
evolution. The health of every cell directly contributes to your state
of well-being, because every cell is a point of awareness within the
field of awareness that is you. 9. Replace fear-motivated behavior with love-motivated behavior. Fear is the product of memory, which dwells in the past. Remembering what hurt us before, we direct our energies toward
making certain that an old hurt will not repeat itself. But trying to
impose the past on the present will never wipe out the threat of being
hurt. That happens only when you find the security of your own
being, which is love. Motivated  by the truth inside you, you can face
any threat because your inner strength is invulnerable to fear. 10. Understand that the physical world is just a mirror of a deeper
intelligence. Intelligence is the invisible organizer of all matter and
energy, and since a portion of this intelligence resides in you, you
share in the organizing power of the cosmos. Because you are
inseparably linked to everything, you cannot afford to foul the
planet’ s air and water. But at a deeper level, you cannot afford to live
with a toxic mind, because every thought makes an impression on the
whole field of intelligence. Livin g in balance and purity is the highest
good for you and the Earth. Life is a creative enterprise. There are many levels of creation and therefore
many levels of possible mastery. To be completely loving, nonjudgmental,
and self-accepting is an exalted goal, but the important thing  is to work
from a concept of wholeness. Because society lacks a vision of the road’ s
end, the eminent psychiatrist Erik Erikson laments, “Our civilization does
not really harbor a concept of the whole of life. ” The new paradigmprovides us with such a concept, knitting body, mind, and spirit into a unity. The later years should be a time when life becomes whole. The circle closes
and life’s purpose is fulfilled. In that regard, active mastery is not just a way
to survive to extreme old age—it is the road to freedom. OceanofPDF. comIN PRACTICE:
Breath of Life
In its most complete sense, active mastery means handling the whole of life. It is a process of integration, for ordinarily many aspects of the mind are
quite separate from and out of tune with the body, and both are separate
from spirit. Sitting quietly and being aware of yourself, you will notice that
your perception is taken up with mental “noise” (random thoughts,
emotions, memo ries) and occasional physical sensations that may or may
not have  anythi ng to do with what is going on in your mind. Usually the
perception of spirit is completel y lost or ignored; even in moments of silent
witnessing, those welcome pauses when one is detached from the common
turmoil of mental events, most of us do not recognize that we are contacting
our essential selves. Bringing all these ingredients back into unity isn’t possible on either the
mental level or the physical level alone. Paying attention to one
automatically tends to exclude the other. Unity can be accompli shed at very
deep levels of awareness through meditation, when the duality of mind and
body is transcended, but meditation is restricted to the special time set aside
for it. How do we integrate the remaining hours of our active daily lives. Thousands of years ago the ancient Indian sages gave an answer in the
form of Prana,  the subtlest form of biological energy. Prana is present in
every mental and physical event; it flows directly from spirit, or pure
awareness, to bring intelligence  and consciousness to every aspect of life. You sometimes see Prana defined as “life force” or “life energy,” but what
is more importa nt than a definition is to get experiential knowledge of it. If
you can experience Prana, you can begin to nurture and preserve it. The
critical importance of life energy has been recognized in many culturaltraditions; the Chinese know it as Chi and control its flow through
acupuncture, meditation, and specialized exercises such as tai chi. Other
names for the breath of life appear in Sufism, mystic Christianity, and the
teachings of ancient Egypt. What is universally agreed on is that the more
Prana you have, the more vital your mental and bodily processes. Balanced
Prana gives rise to the following qualities:
RESUL TS OF BALANCED PRANA
Mental alertness Proper formation of tissues
Responsive nervous system;
good motor coordinationSound sleep
Balanced bodily rhythms
(hunger, thirst, sleep,
digestion, elimination, etc. )Strong disease immunity
Enthusiasm Physical vitality
Spiritual realization Sense of exhilaration
These are the natural qualities of human life when it is balanced and
whole. Depleted Prana is directly linked to aging and death. Nothing can
remain alive when Prana is absent, because Prana is intelligence and
consciousness, the two vital ingredients that animate physical matter. The
experience of Prana can be had in many ways: When you are flushed with
sudden energy, feel the inrush of sudden alertness and clarity, or simply
perceive that you are “in the flow,” your attention has been draw n to Prana. Some people sense it as a streaming or buzzing energy in their bodies. These sensations tend to get passed of f as something else (ringing in the ear,
tingling nerves, increased circulation of blood), but that is only a reflection
of how we were taught to perceive our bodies. In India the body is perceived first as a product of consciousness and
only secondarily as a material object. Conserving Prana is considered
extremely impo rtant, and the ancient teachings give the following basic
rules to ensure balanced and vital Prana in the body at all ages:Diet. Eat fresh produ ce, preferably home grown. The highest Prana is in
food eaten straight from the garden. Stale food rapidly loses its Prana; in
fact, anything stale, musty, or moldly indicates the absence of life energy
and should be avoided. Processed food is also very low in Prana. Drinking
water should be pure; the best is spring water or mountain water from
melted snow. Polluted water is deficient in Prana. Exercise. Physical activity increases Prana by bringing energy into the
body, unless carried to the point of exhaustion. Exhaustion and fatigue are
critical signs that Prana has been depleted. (In Western medicine we
recognize this change as well; when exercise is carried beyond  the body’ s
oxygen reserves, it has to gain energy by metabolizing its own tissues. See
the discussion of catabolic and anabolic metabolism, this page –this page. ) Breathing. The body’ s main source of Prana is through the breath, which on
a gross level brings in oxygen and on a subtle level brings in life energy. Prana is thus literally identified  with the breath of life. The ancient sages
considered the quality of a perso n’s life to be reflected in the quality of his
breathing. When  breathing is refined, slow, and regular, the circulation of
Prana is reaching all levels of body and mind, promoting a state of complete
balance. Behavior. Actions  can damage or nouris h the body’ s Prana. Harsh, tense,
conflicted behav ior (what we today call stressed behavior) disturbs the flow
of Prana. Refined behavior that comes from a sense of ease and self-
acceptance promotes balanced Prana. The attitude of nonviolence (Ahimsa ),
sometimes calle d reverence for life, is at the root of life-nourishing
behavior. Emotions. Four negative emotions—fear, anger, greed, and envy—throw
Prana out of balance and are to be avoided. Positive emotions, particularly
love, increase Prana. Love is considered the most basic emotion that human
awareness can feel; therefore, it is the closest to the source of life. The burst
of well-being you feel when you fall in love is due to the fact that you
unconsciously open the channe ls of awareness that allow more Prana to
flow. Emotions that are repres sed through shame and guilt cause thesechannels to constrict. When Prana is kept from flowing in this way, pockets
of inertia and stagnation develop, eventually promoting disease. Depression
is a state of almost complete nonflow and is associated with chronic illness,
premature aging, and early death. Thus, a healthy life, as measure d by the conservation of Prana, demands
the following:
•  Fresh food
•  Pure water and air
•  Sunlight
•  Moderate exercise
•  Balanced, refined breath
•  Nonviolent behavior and a reverence for life
•  Loving, positive emotions; free expression of emotion
Think of the difference between a salad fresh-picked from your garden
and one made from the same vegetables bought in the supermarket. Contrast a picnic in the mountains with lunch at a hambur ger stand, or the
taste of cool well water with water from a city tap. Freshness indicates the
presence of Prana; staleness indicates its absence. The factor least understood in our culture is balanced breath, which in
India is considered the most important. The word breath implies more than
the physical act of drawing air in and out of the lungs. Breath is the junction
point between mind, body, and spirit. Every change of mental state is
reflected in the breath and then in the body. Gross indications such as
posture as well as distinct bodily sensations are directly related to one’s
style of breathing. Changes of feeling are registered immediately in the pattern of breathing. Anger produces shallow inhalation and strong, panting exhalation. Fear
creates rapid, shallow, ragged breathing. Sorrow creates spasmodic, broken
breathing—the kind that arises when you are sobbing. On the other hand,
positive emotion s such as joy induce more regular breathing as the chest
cavity relaxes. In moments when the mind stops, struck with beauty or
revelation, so does the breath—that’ s what people are referring to when
they say that looking into the Grand Canyon for the first time isbreathtaking. At a subtler level, entering into the silence of deep meditation
slows the breath, and what spiritual masters call “the rapture of God”—
contemplating Spirit directly—is reflected in little or no breathing. This phenomenon also works in reverse—changing the breathing pattern
also causes altered emotions. As a young intern on duty in the emer gency
room, I was taught to calm down agitated patients just by sitting next to
them and asking them to breathe slowly, deeply, and regularly  along with
me. As we fell into a relaxed breathing rhythm, our bodies spontaneously
followed suit, and their agitated  emotions were stilled. In the chart on this
page  are some examples from common experience of how the link between
breath, body, and emotion works. As you can see, when joy, love, and compassion are at work, breathing is
at its most spontaneous and relaxed. The various systems of Yoga in India
teach many kinds of highly controlled breathing exercises,  known as
Pranayama,  to balance the breath, but their actual goal is not to produce
controlled or disciplined breath ing under ordinary circumstan ces. Rather,
paying attention to the breath is a vehicle for releasing stress and allowing
the body to find its own balance. Once in balance, yogic breathing is
spontaneous and refined, so that the refined emotions of love and devotion
can be carried throughout the body at all levels. When your cells experience
the fullness of Prana, they are receiving the physical equivale nt of these
emotions. The following two exercises are for balancing your breathing. They are
not full-blown Pranayamas, which should be done in conjunction with
meditation and Yoga postures, * but when properly done, these exercises
will give you the experience of Prana as a light, sparkling, flowing
sensation in your body. Usually, your muscles will become notic eably warm
and relaxed. Mentally, balanced  breathing is reflected in a sense of calm,
lack of tension, and quietness, as the static of restless thinking gives way to
silence. Exercise 1: Body Br eathing
Sit still in a chair listening to soft music, or outside listening to the wind
in the treetops. As you listen, gently let your attention flow out of your ears
as you easily exhale. Repeat for a minute, then do the same thing through
your eyes, letting your attentio n go outward on the breath, slowly and
gently. Repeat this through the nostrils, the mouth, then sit quietly just
listening to the music with your whole body. Now allow your attention to sink into your chest. Feel where your heart
center is (at the point where the breastbone and ribs join) and breathe out
through it, letting your attention go with the breath. Continue  gently for
another minute,  then sit quietly, aware of your body. This exercise takes
about two minutes but can be extended by doing another cycle or two. This exercise consciously links respiration and the nervous system,
helping to promote their smooth integration. It is a delightful exercise to
conduct outdoors, sitting next to running water or under a tree when the
wind is gently stirring its leaves. Feeling your awareness as it flows out on
your breath gives you a powerful sense of being at harmony with Nature. Exercise 2: The Expanding Light
Stand in your stocking feet with your eyes closed, arms down at your
sides, and vividly relive the sensation of your last exhilarating experience. Recapture the feeling of being happy, vibrant, and carefree. (You can use a
visual image, a loving memor y, a moment of triumph from the past—
anything that brings the sensatio n of exhilaration back to you; do not worry
if it is only faint, just have the intention of being with it. ) As you do this, inhale slowly through your nose and begin to spread your
arms out slowly. Imagine that as you inhale, your breath is expanding from
the center of your chest. It is an expanding light that makes your arms float
effortlessly open, and as the light expands, your happy, exhilar ated feeling
expands with it. You can visualize this as a glowing blue-white ball of light
if you want, or just as a sensation. Let the light grow as slowly or quickly as
it wants,  spreadi ng from the center of your heart, reaching out to the tips ofyour fingers, up to your head, and down to your toes. You’ll also be
smiling, so let that grow, too. At the point of maximum extension, start slowly exhaling through your
nose and bring your arms back down to your sides. Do this slowly, taking
longer to exhale than to inhale. Take the expanded feeling/light  back down
into your chest, until it is small and localized in your heart again. As your
arms come back down to your sides, let your head drop forward. Now repeat the exercise on the next breath, expanding the feeling again
—don’ t pay attention to your physical movements, but stay with the feeling. You want to open and close it like a flower with each breath. As you continu e, you can begin to open up even more, throwing your
head back, expanding your chest, and rising on tiptoe on the outward stroke. As you exhale, slump like a rag doll, bending at the knees and waist. Don’ t
speed up the movements, however, just proceed slowly and rhythmically. You’ll notice that this is an extremely pleasant exercise, because as you
open, your body fills with breat h, awareness, and enjoyment all at once—
the sensation is light, warm, tingling. As you close, the body relaxes and
slumps under its own weight, becoming more grounded and still. You are
exploring a complete range of feeling, which allows the subtle breath to
penetrate into every channel. The Vata Connection
As we get older, there is a natural tendency for Prana to diminish; this must
be count ered to preserve youthfulness. In India, longevity was traditionally
assigned to a branch of learning called Ayurveda,  derived from two Sanskrit
roots, Ayus, or “life,” and Veda, meaning “science” or “knowle dge. ” This
ancient “scienc e of life” is usually referred to as India’ s traditional
medicine, but there is a deeper spiritual basis for Ayurveda. The most
famous verse from the ancient Ayurvedic texts says, Ayurveda amritanam
(“Ayurveda is for immortality”). The meaning is twofold: Ayurveda is for
promoting longe vity without limit, and it does this from a belief that life
essentially is immortal. According to A yurveda, the life ener gy, or Prana, is channeled throughout
our bodies by a “wind” known as Vata. Vata is one of the three metabolic
principles ( doshas ) that give form to every living thing, be it a mosquito, an
elephant, a human being, a planet, a star, or the entire cosmos. Vata is
responsible for movement of every kind. In the human body it is divided
into five parts:
Prana V ata regulates the nervous system. Udana V ata regulates cognitive skills, speech, and memory. Samana V ata regulates digestion. Vyana V ata regulates circulation. Apana V ata regulates excretion. All five aspects of V ata are controlled by the first and most important, Prana
Vata, for as the name implies, this dosha brings in Prana, the life force,
which is then distributed to the rest of the body. When Prana Vata is out of
balance, there is general disruption throughout the system. Ayurveda holds
that old age is a particularly sensitive time for such imbalances. Vata is
naturally higher in old age, and if a person has not been careful to keep
Prana V ata in balance, the following symptoms will result:
SYMPT OMS OF V ATA IMBALANCE
Physical symptoms Mental/behavioral symptoms
Dry or rough skin; wrinkles Insomnia
Chronic underweight; muscle
wastingWorry, anxiety
Weak kidneys; loss of
bladder controlDepression
Weak or irregular heartbeat
Fatigue
ConstipationConfusion, restless thoughts
Common arthritis Intolerance to stress
Nonspecific aches and pains Intolerance to coldWeakened immunity
(susceptibility to colds,
pneumonia, and other
infections) 
You’ll immedia tely notice the close match between these disorders of
imbalanced Vata and aging. As the “wind” of the body, Vata is cold, drying,
and piercing. When Vata is aggravated, it is as if a withering wind begins to
stir inside. Usually the first place to which aggravated Vata will travel is the
joints, initiating a range of joint problems beginning with minor aches and
pains (these cause trouble especially during winter, the season that is worst
for Vata disturbance) and ending with degenerative arthritis if the
aggravation persists. Since every cell contains Vata dosha, the effects of aggravating it are not
confined to the joints. The whole body begins to shrivel and dry up; the
bowels become dry, tight, and constipated; racked with insomnia  and worry,
the person languishes, prey to ever-increasing aches and pains. Millions of
prescriptions for painkillers, tranquilizers, and sleeping pills are written by
baffled doctors who cannot explain why elderly patients start exhibiting
such symptoms, since usually there is nothing organically wrong. In
medical terminology, organic  means that a physical organ shows signs of
disease or malfunction. Physicians tend to dismiss symptoms without
organic cause as psychosomatic or idiopathic (unexplainable). Old people rarely suf fer from just one of the symptoms of V ata imbalance
and many suffer them on a broad scale. If multiple drugs are prescribed for
each symptom, new imbalances  begin to pile up, for the body cannot help
but react with imbalance to painkillers, diuretics, tranquilizers, sleeping
pills, beta blockers, and all the other medications commonly prescribed for
the elderly. Whether we like it or not, a symptom is something the body
wants to express—it is a message—and drugs suppress that expression. How fast you age is intimately linked to the speed and intensity of Vata
aggravation. Some people are extremely prone to Vata imbalance, while
others are not. Some people may get aggravated Vata in their fingers,
leading to arthritis, while others  get it in their intestines, leading to chronic
constipation. What can cause Vata imbalance. Ayurveda follows the principle of
complementarity—“like speaks to like. ” What this means is that any quality
Vata dosha possesses will be stimulated by the same quality outside your
body. These qualities are as follows. QUALITIES OF V ATA DOSHA
Dry
Cold
Changeable
Rough
Moving
Light
Subtle
Quick
Leads other doshas
Anything in your environment that contains the above traits will increase
Vata. For example:
Dry weather; dry foods (crackers, cereals, potato chips, etc. ) Cold weather; cold food and drink
Changeable: sudden life changes; death in family; loss of job; mood
swings; sudden change of season; etc. Rough-textured materials next to the skin; rough words or behavior
Moving: travel; falling down; physical exercise or labor; exposure to
drafts or wind
Light foods that have a high air content, particularly raw fruits and
vegetables
Subtle changes of mood, a subtle draft
Quick: any activity, physical or mental, requiring speed; being made
to rush
Let me illustrate  how these qualities (called gunas  in Sanskrit) interact. If
my kidneys detect a fluid shortage in my bloodstream, they secrete aspecific chemical messenger—angiotensin 2—which gets carried to the
hypothalamus in the brain and is converted into a mental event: I feel
thirsty. This feeling then prompts me to act by getting a glass of water. In Ayurvedic terms, what has happened is a steady flow of one impulse
of intelligence—V ata—as it registers the needs of 50 trillion cells
simultaneously. Vata has the quality of being dry, and it increases under any
kind of dry condition. Dry crackers, dry desert heat, dry cold from air-
conditioning, and even dry wit all serve to increase Vata. Dryness make us
thirsty because our bodies detect this increased Vata, and the signal will
persist until something wet, such as a drink of water, brings the opposite
quality into play and V ata falls back into line. Vata is the easiest dosha to push out of balance, but also the easiest to
bring back. Since Prana Vata, the most important aspect of this dosha,
regulates the nervous system,  it shifts with the slightest thought or
sensation. By doing the thing s that are needed to keep Prana Vata in
balance, we have a complete system for conserving Prana and defeating the
aging process at an extremely subtle level. This means we must pay some
attention to Vata every day, whic h is in fact quite a natural and easy thing to
do. Vata can be “pacified”—i. e. , kept in balance—through various lifestyle
measures. PACIFYING V ATA
To keep  Vata dosha in balance, you need to keep the following  qualities in
mind:
Regular: regular habits; mealtimes; bedtime; work
schedule
Warm: warm, well-cooked food; sunshine;
avoidance of cold food and drink
Nourishing: rich, nourishing, even heavy foods in cold
weather; nurturing emotions
Relaxing: taking time for adequate rest; avoidance of
stressful situations, overexcitement, and
overexertionStable: stable relationships and work; stable home
life
Calming: quiet, orderly work environment; gentle
massage (particularly good is warm oil
massage using sesame oil)
Steady: steady supply of food and water to body; not
skipping meals or going on an empty
stomach
A dosha  is pacified by qualities it lacks. Because Vata tends to make
people erratic, irregular, and inconsistent, it is helpful to coun ter with the
oposite—steadiness and regularity. Small matters such as not skipping
meals and going to bed on time pay large dividends in pacifying Vata. Prolonged expo sure to stress creates serious Vata imbalance, so special
attention has to be paid to giving yourself a quiet, orderly work
environment. Cheerful conditions at work greatly relieve the Vata tendency
to uncertainty and insecurity. When you are under the influ ence of Vata, you will naturally seek
warmth; keeping  warm in winte r and sunbathing at other times  of the year
soothes this dosha. Your diet should emphasize well-cooked, nourishing
foods; Ayurveda considers even heavy, oily food to be good for Vata (which
is why long-cooked stews and soups seem so appealing in winter). A voiding
cold salads, iced drinks, alcohol, and dry or uncooked food in cold weather
will also correct the body’ s tendency to develop aggravated Vata at those
times. In general, stimulants of any kind, including coffee, tobacco, and
alcohol, create V ata imbalance. When out of balance, Vata leads to light, interrupted sleep; this is best
countered by going to bed early and avoiding late-night reading and
television. The body also wants some periods of calmness, relaxation, and
peace during each day. Meditation is ideal, since exposing the nervous
system to deep silence allows it to harmonize all the synchronized bodily
rhythms that Vata regulates. Peaceful, loving family life is an ideal many
people feel has slipped away in recent decades, but from the viewpoint of
Vata dosha, it is vital. Vata has a special affinity with warm oils; daily massage with warm
sesame oil on the feet, head, and lower abdomen is one of the best measures
for relieving deep stresses in the nervous system. The oil should be applied
gently and slowly before the morning bath and again before bedtime. Special attentio n to balancing Vata should be paid whenever you are
recuperating from illness or under emotional stress; suffering from jet leg;
displaying depression, chronic fatigue, and exhaustion; or have been
physically wounded—all of these conditions cause severe V ata disturbance. If you detect chronic symptoms of Vata imbalance,  the follo wing specific
measures should help:
• Include sweet, sour, and salty tastes in your meals; these are
balancing for Vata. This dosha  calls for more sour and salty foods
than does any other. • Avoid bitter, astringent, and pungent (spicy) tastes. Astringent is
counted as a taste in Ayurveda; it is found in dry-tasting foods that
pucker the mouth (beans, lentils, pomegranates, tea). • If you feel uncomfortable living in a dry, cold, windy climate,
consider moving  to a warm one, which is more conducive to Vata
balance. Everyone who lives in a cold climate would do well,
according to Ayurveda, to make sure that their home and workplace
has warm, humidified air. Avoid drafts and prolonged outdoor
exercise in winter. Warm, heart y food eaten at regular interval s is a
good anti-V ata measure in cold climates. • If possible, eat all meals sittin g down in a peaceful, quiet, friendly
setting. Food eaten on the run disturbs Vata. Avoid any kind of
dieting, fasting,  or spending any length of time with an empty
stomach. • If you have an irregular appetite—a common problem when Vata is
imbalanced—try eating several small meals throughout the day (the
last one should be at sundown, or at least a couple of hours before
bedtime). • Avoid prolonged travel without rest in between flights or long
drives. In cases of jet lag, take adequate time to rest and/or sleep as
soon as you have reached your destination. Drink plenty of fluids enroute; herb tea or plain hot water is helpful on jets; liquor and cold
drinks tend to aggravate the jarring ef fect on V ata dosha. • Aroma  therapy or warm baths  with a few drops of fragrant oil help
soothe Vata. Choose scents that are warm, grounding, and soothing,
such as winter green, sandalwoo d, camphor, cinnamon, basil, orange,
rose geranium, and clove. • In cooking, herbs and spices should be sweet and/or heating in
quality: ginger, black pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, mustard, mint,
cayenne, horser adish, cumin, nutmeg, cardamom, green coria nder,
fennel, basil, oregano, rosemary, sage, and thyme. * Pranayama forms an important part of the traditional Ayurvedic procedures I emplo y in medical
practice. The interested reader may refer to my earlier book, Perfect Health  (New York: Harmony
Books, 1990), which details the complete  program of Maharishi Ayurveda, a revival of the most
powerful knowledge from India’ s ancient “science of life. ”
OceanofPDF. comPART 
FIVE
Breaking the Spell of Mortality
By your art, Spirit, you defeat  
the withering of death. RIG VEDA
OceanofPDF. comTHE UL TIMA TE BOUNDAR Y to human life is death, and for thousands of years
we have tried to travel beyond that boundary. Despite the obvio us mortality
of our bodies, moments arise when the clear perception of immortality
shines through. The poet Tennyson wrote of experiences he had in his youth
when his individual self “seemed to dissolve and melt away into boundless
being. ” This radical shift out of ordinary experience “was not a confused
state,” he recalled, “but the clearest of the clear, the surest of the sure,
utterly beyond words—when death was an almost laughable impossibility. ”
Because they are totally subjective, such immortal feelings do not fit in to
the worldview of science, and therefore we tend to label them religious. But
thousands of people have been privileged to catch glimpses of the reality
that encloses space and time like a vast multidimensional bubble. Some
people seem to have contacted this timeless realm through near-death
experiences, but it is also accessible in everyday life. Peeking through the
mask of matter “we have a certain feeling, a certain longing that we can’t
quite put into words. It’s a strivi ng…a wish for something greater or higher
in ourselves. ” With these words  the philosopher Jacob Needleman pointed
to what he called “our second world,” which anyone can access under
special conditions. Our first world, Needleman wrote, is “the world we live in every  day, this
world of action and activity and doing,” ruled by everyday thoughts and
emotions. But like flashes of spiritual lightning, there are moments when
the second world makes itself known, full of peace and joy and a clear,
unfor gettable sense of who we really are—“vivid moments of being present
in oneself,” Needleman called them. If the second world is inside us, so is
the first, because ultimately there is nothing verifiably “out there. ”
Everything to be seen, felt, and touched in the world is knowable only as
firings of neuronal signals inside our brains. It all happens in here. Who you are depends on what world you see yourself living in. Because
it is ruled by change, the first world contains sickness, aging, and death as
inevitable parts of the scenery;  in the second world, where there is only
pure being, these are totally absent. Therefore, finding this world withinourselves and experiencing it, even for a moment, could have  a profound
effect on the process of sickness and aging, if not death itself. This possibility has always been accepted as fact in the East. In India and
China, some spiritual masters are believed to have lived hundre ds of years
as a result of achieving a state of timeless awareness. This is considered one
of the options open to a spirit who has attained Moksha,  or liberation,
although not every master takes  the option of extending his life span. In the
West, such powers are viewed with extreme skepticism. But the new
paradigm assures us that there is a level of Nature where time dissolves, or,
to turn it around, where time is created. This level is extremely enigmatic, even by quantum standards, since it
existed before the creation of space and time. The rational mind can’t
conceive of such a state, because to say that something existed before time
began is a contradiction in logic. Yet the ancient sages believed that direct
knowledge of timeless reality is possible. Every generation has affirmed
that assertion. Einstein himself experienced episodes of complete liberation
from space-time  boundaries: “At such moments one imagines that one
stands on some spot of a small planet gazing in amazement at the cold and
yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable. Life and
death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor eternity, only Being. ”
It has taken three generations for the new paradigm to show us that Being
is a very real state, existing beyond change and death, a place where the
laws of Nature that govern change are overturned. Death is ultimately just
another transformation, from one configuration of matter and energy to
another. But unless you can stand outside the arena of change, death
represents an end point, an extinction. To escape death ultimately means
escaping the worldview that gives death its terrible sense of closure and
finality. “I’m very afraid  of death,” an Indian disciple once confessed to his guru. “It’s haunted me since I was a child. Why was I born. What will happen to
me when I die. ”
The guru considered the matter thoughtfully and said, “Why do you think
you were born. ”
“I don’ t understand your question,” the disciple stammered. “Why do you think you were born. ” the guru repeated. “Isn’ t it just
something your parents told you that you took for granted. Did you actually
have the experie nce of being born, of coming into existence from a state of
nonexistence, or didn’ t it happen that one day in childhood you asked where
you came from, and your parent s told you that you were born. Because you
accepted their answer, the idea of death frightens you. But rest assured, you
cannot have birth without death. They are two poles of the same concept. Perhaps you have always been alive and always will be. But in accepting
your parents’ system of belief, you entered into an agreement to fear death,
because you think of it as an ending. Perhaps there is no ending— that is the
possibility most worth exploring. ”
Naturally the disciple was shocked, because, like the rest of us, he didn’ t
see death as a belief he had agreed to. What the guru was pointing out is
that birth and death are space-time events but existence isn’t. If we look
inside us, we find a faint but certain memory that we have always been
around. To put it another way, no one remembers not existing. The fact that
such metaphysic al issues arise shows how unique humans are. For us, death
isn’t just a brute fact but a mystery, and it must be unraveled  before the
mystery of aging—the process that leads to death—can be solve d. The very
deepest questions about who we are and what life means are wrapped up in
the nature of existence. When the spell of mortality is broken, you can release the fear that gives
death its power. Fear of death reaches much further into our lives than our
conscious minds are willing to concede. As David Viscott wrote, “When
you say you fear death you are really saying that you fear you have not
lived your true life. This fear cloaks the world in silent suffering. ” Yet by
seeing through the fear you can turn it into a positive force. “Let your fear
of death motivate you to examine your true worth and to have a dream for
your own life,” Viscott encouraged. “Let it help you value the moment, act
on it, and live in it. ”
I want to go even further and suggest that when you see yourself in terms
of timel ess, deathless Being, every cell awakens to a new existence. True
immortality can be experienced here and now, in this living body. It comes
about when you draw the infusion of Being into everything you think anddo. This is the experience of timeless mind and ageless body that the new
paradigm has been preparing us for.
High expectations and a desire to reach for it.
According to the text, what is the primary factor that determines an individual's longevity?
Continued use of the organ in question.
What is the key to maintaining mental function, according to the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging?
The breath is connected to the body, and the quality of the breath reflects the state of the body. The text also mentions that it is possible to experience a state of timeless awareness, which is associated with increased Prana (life energy).
What is the relationship between the breath and the body, according to Ayurvedic principles?
The text does not explicitly state this, but it does mention that Prana is the life force and that the body's cells are constantly making and unmaking it. It also suggests that Prana can be influenced by the environment, and that it is possible to increase Prana through certain activities.
What is the relationship between Prana and the physical body, according to the text?
The text explains that Vata is a key factor in aging and that it can be balanced and controlled through certain lifestyle choices and practices, such as regular habits, warm and nourishing food, and a peaceful environment.
What is the significance of the concept of "Vata" in the context of aging and health?