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    Secrets of a Long & Happy Life
    Secrets of a Long & Happy Life
    Secrets of a Long & Happy Life
    Ebook217 pages4 hours

    Secrets of a Long & Happy Life

    By David Tuffley

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    About this ebook

    The essence of longevity is harmony. It is bringing your inner world into harmony with your outer world, the microcosm with the macrocosm. Your inner world is a reflection of your outer world and the two should be as closely aligned as possible. The more conflict there is, the more stress and strain there is, and the shorter life tends to be.

    At the physical level, longevity is achieved by keeping your body flexible and in good working order. At the mental level it is keeping your mind clear and sharp, thinking creatively. At the spiritual level, it is being at peace with your world. Each of these levels is addressed in detail in this comprehensive how to guide.

    Secrets of a Long & Happy Life goes well beyond lifestyle advice for long life. It works on the assumption that quantity of life must also be accompanied by the highest possible quality of life. What is the point of living to 100 if you are miserable? Nursing homes and aged care facilities are filled with people who are kept alive through advances in medical science, but whose enjoyment of life is poor or non-existent. Do not let this happen to you.

    The Romans had a saying; mens sana in corpora sano. It means a healthy mind in a healthy body. Mind and body depend upon each other, and both must be healthy. But having a healthy mind in a healthy body is the starting point. Secrets of a Long & Happy Life gives you detailed advice on how to achieve this, and does so in a culturally neutral way. Regardless of where you live, what cultural and religious traditions you observe, this advice will work for you because it operates at the level of underlying principle, not outward form.

    From here, it shows you how to become self-actualised (achieving your fullest potential), how to cultivate your intelligence well beyond its current level.

    Secrets of a Long & Happy Life does not shy away from the reality of death. Living in fear of dying erodes your enjoyment of life, so the book draws from ancient Buddhist wisdom about how to achieve enlightenment and what happens to your consciousness when your body dies. In short, it helps you understand how to have a good death at the end of a long and happy life.

    This could just be the most useful book you ever read.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAltiora Publications
    Release dateJan 24, 2013
    ISBN9781301194100
    Secrets of a Long & Happy Life
    Author

    David Tuffley

    David Tuffley (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & Socio-Technical Studies at Griffith University in Australia.David writes on a broad range of interests; from Comparative Religion, Anthropology, Psychology, Ancient and Modern History, Linguistics, Rhetoric, Philosophy, Architectural History, Environments and Ecosystems.

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      Book preview

      Secrets of a Long & Happy Life - David Tuffley

      Secrets of a Long & Happy Life

      David Tuffley

      Published by Altiora Publications at Smashwords

      www.altiorapublications.com

      © Copyright 2013 David Tuffley

      Until ‘kings were philosophers or philosophers were kings’ there will be injustice in the world – Plato

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.

      About the Author

      David Tuffley PhD is a Lecturer and researcher at Griffith University in Australia. He has a broad range of interests; Anthropology, Psychology, Philosophy, Ancient and Modern History, Linguistics, Rhetoric, Comparative Religions, Architectural History, Environments and Ecosystems.

      David Tuffley’s Profile & other eBooks: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/tuffley

      Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tuffley/

      Contents

      Introduction

      Chapter 1: Lifestyle

      Chapter 2: Stimulate your brain

      Chapter 3: Self-Actualization

      Chapter 4: Harmony with Nature

      Chapter 5: Being Creative

      Chapter 6: Enlightenment

      Appendix A: Tips & Advice

      Appendix B: Beating Addiction

      Introduction

      The essence of longevity is harmony. It is bringing your inner world into harmony with your outer world, the microcosm with the macrocosm. Your inner world is a reflection of your outer world and the two should be as closely aligned as possible. The more conflict there is, the more stress and strain there is, and the shorter life tends to be.

      At the physical level, longevity is achieved by keeping your body flexible and in good working order. At the mental level it is keeping your mind clear and sharp, thinking creatively. At the spiritual level, it is being at peace with your world. Each of these levels is addressed in detail in this comprehensive how to guide.

      Secrets of a Long & Happy Life goes well beyond lifestyle advice for long life. It works on the assumption that quantity of life must also be accompanied by the highest possible quality of life. What is the point of living to 100 if you are miserable? Nursing homes and aged care facilities are filled with people who are kept alive through advances in medical science, but whose enjoyment of life is poor or non-existent. Do not let this happen to you.

      The Romans had a saying; mens sana in corpora sano. It means a healthy mind in a healthy body. Mind and body depend upon each other, and both must be healthy. But having a healthy mind in a healthy body is the starting point. Secrets of a Long & Happy Life gives you detailed advice on how to achieve this, and does so in a culturally neutral way. Regardless of where you live, what cultural and religious traditions you observe, this advice will work for you because it operates at the level of underlying principle, not outward form.

      From here, it shows you how to become self-actualised (achieving your fullest potential), how to cultivate your intelligence well beyond its current level.

      Secrets of a Long & Happy Life does not shy away from the reality of death. Living in fear of dying erodes your enjoyment of life, so the book draws from ancient Buddhist wisdom about how to achieve enlightenment and what happens to your consciousness when your body dies. In short, it helps you understand how to have a good death at the end of a long and happy life.

      This could just be the most useful book you ever read.

      How this book is organised

      Chapter 1: Lifestyle. Presents the lifestyle factors that contribute to a long life. It is basically about living somewhere with clean air, good water, low stress, tight-knit community and unspoiled Nature. It avoids being too prescriptive about the details because these will differ between different cultures and environments. Rather it looks at the underlying principles that you can apply in your life.

      Chapter 2: Stimulate your brain. Your brain is the most complex biological structure ever to have existed on this planet. It has tremendous capabilities well beyond what most people realize. So instead of letting it vegetate through lack of use, here are a series of practical ways to use your brain and become more intelligent.

      Chapter 3: Self-Actualization. Following Chapter 1 in which the various lifestyle factors that contribute to longevity are discussed, Chapter 2 argues the case that quality of life is just as important as quantity. The objective should be to have both in abundance. Chapter 2 therefore shows you how to achieve a high quality of life through becoming self-actualised, a more authentic path to happiness than the accumulation of more and more consumer goods that are supposed to make is happy. Truly happy people, whatever their age, are self-actualised (SA) people because they have achieved a fuller expression of their unique human potential.

      Chapter 4: Harmony with Nature. The Tao Te Ching is an ancient book that manages to be very short but packed with so much enduring truth that it is has lasted for 2,500 years and will, in all likelihood last another 2,500 years and beyond. If anything can teach us about longevity it is the Tao Te Ching. Taoist monks in East Asia routinely live well into their second century by bringing their physical, mental and spiritual selves into harmony with their outer world. They conserve their life-force by going with the flow of life and not exhausting themselves by swimming against the current. The principles outlined in the Tao Te Ching are not a religion. It is more about the laws of Nature than religion.

      Chapter 5: Being Creative. Advancing age is an opportunity to become more productive and creative than ever. With a lifetime of knowledge and experience plus the right mind-set, you can cultivate a highly creative state of mind in which the sky is the limit. Drawing on cross-cultural studies, this chapter is an exploration of how geniuses think. It draws on cross-cultural studies that identify the essential ways that highly creative people think and behave.

      Chapter 6: Enlightenment. To round off a long and fulfilling life, it is important to be as well-prepared as possible for the day when you leave this world (hopefully at the end of a long and happy life). Many people in the Western world are so terrified of death that they spend their lives trying to ignore the whole idea of dying. That is no way to live. True happiness in life depends on being properly prepared. This chapter presents a Buddhist perspective on what happens to our consciousness when the physical body dies, and how to achieve enlightenment before we die. The content of this part should not conflict with any existing religious views you might have. Buddhism is not a religion since it recognises no Deity. It is more akin to an ancient form of Psychology and Philosophy, informed by mystical insight.

      Appendix A: Tips& Advice. A collection of tips and advice across a wide range of topics.

      Appendix B: Beating Addiction. Practical advice where addiction is an impediment to be overcome.

      How to use this book

      Secrets of a Long & Happy Life is a comprehensive how-to book whose chapters should ideally be read in order in which they appear. Or if you prefer, you can read the chapters in whichever order that makes the most sense to you.

      Ideally, it is not enough to adopt a healthy lifestyle. For a truly long and happy life, becoming highly creativeand moving towards self-actualization is highly desirable. By doing this, there really is no reason why you cannot do your best work later in life.

      The chapter on achieving harmony with Nature is a 21st century version of the oldest book still in print – the Tao Te Ching. It is the embodiment of longevity. Learn the subtle secrets of the ancient Chinese that allowed them to live to an advanced old age long before modern medicine.

      Beyond self-actualization is the spiritual side of life. The chapter on enlightenment may not be of interest to everyone. For some it will be a bridge too far, and that is fine. Some readers will however be interested in this road-map for the spiritually inclined.

      It is my sincere wish to give as many people as possible the means by which they can live a long and happy life.

      David Tuffley,

      Redland Bay,

      Australia.

      Chapter 1: Lifestyle

      Research into long-life and healthy aging has identified certain common factors that appear to be true everywhere. The ways these factors are implemented differs according to the local culture. As interesting as the various outward expressions longevity might be, it is much more helpful to know what the underlying principles are. Whoever you are, wherever you live, these principles will be true for you. Your challenge is work out how to apply them in your particular situation.

      In an evolutionary sense, these principles describe the ideal way for humans to live. Despite differences in outward appearance, language and culture, every human alive in the world today is a member of the same species that evolved on the African savannah. We are far more alike than not alike, all of us members of the one big family -- a fact which many people lose sight of.

      The fossil record tells us that the human lineage split from our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, around five million years ago. By 200,000 years ago, humans were anatomically similar to people today such that if a person from that time were brought into the modern world, groomed and clothed, they would be outwardly indistinguishable from anyone else.

      There is overwhelming objective evidence to support the truth of the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. It tells us that the creatures that survive are those that are best adapted to life in a particular environment. The human species evolved over millions of years in Africa, so we are well-adapted to the conditions of the African environment. The human Diaspora to the rest of the world is comparatively recent, beginning around 120,000 years ago. Since then, there has been wave after wave of people crossing into Eurasia and spreading across that vast land-mass to the Americas and down to Australia.

      Logic would suggest that the key to longevity is to adapt our lifestyle, as best we can, to be an ideal version of what has been called the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness. This is the set of recurring selection pressures that shaped us into the creatures we are today.

      The sections that follow outline the essential features of the lifestyle of early humans. They follow no particular order of importance. They are all important. I do not suggest that we should leave our homes and become hunter-gatherers on the African savannah again. Let us instead make full use of the modern conveniences at our disposal, but let us do so in full knowledge of the grounding principles that make us human. If you can find a way to combine the two, you are well on your way to achieving a long life.

      Sense of Purpose

      It would be difficult to overstate the importance of having a clear, strong sense of purpose in life. For a long and happy life it is essential that you have a grounding sense of purpose that gets you out of bed in the morning and informs every aspect of your daily life. It strengthens the will to live which in turn finds expression in numerous life-enhancing ways.

      A strong sense of purpose involves transcending self-interest and doing what is in the greater good. Obviously if you are in a life-threatening situation, then self-preservation will be uppermost in your mind. Even then, you may be more concerned about saving others, such as your children. In day-to-day life though, transcending the self is about doing something that contributes to the common good. It may seem counter-intuitive that happiness and purpose comes from putting others first, but it does indeed work this way. As the philosopher Daniel Dennett observed, true happiness is finding something more important than yourself and devoting your life to it.

      In the evolutionary environment, our purpose in life was simple; to survive long enough to reproduce. In today’s complex, highly differentiated world, a bewildering array of possibilities exist which makes it more difficult for a person to know what their special niche is. It takes longer to discern what that purpose is.

      For many, the greater good is still to look after their family or to contribute in positive ways to the welfare of their community. For some, it is to work in the interests of their employer in return for a living wage, or perhaps to take up a cause for the benefit of their nation, or the whole world.

      But what if you do not really know what your purpose in life is? What if you are in a job that gives you little or no satisfaction but you do it because you need the money? Here are some practical ways to help you uncover your purpose in life.

      Be brutally honest with yourself. Practicing radical honesty with yourself has a powerfully transformative effect. It opens up your inner awareness and you start seeing whole new vistas that were previously obscured. Lack of honesty with yourself makes it easy to hold on to false beliefs or delusions. It reduces your awareness of what is real in your world. But honesty comes at a price. There will be some difficult issues to sort through, and a few negative consequences in your outer world. People do not always react well to the truth. But these unpleasant consequences are relatively short-lived, while the benefits are both long-lived and many. It is a price that is worth paying. Honesty allows you to be yourself. It also allows those around you to be themselves too. In this more spacious mind-set, your underlying sense of purpose becomes visible. It wants to make itself known to you. You simply need to create the space in which you become conscious of it and honesty creates that space.

      Being honest requires courage and determination to rid ourselves of delusion and face the truth, even when it is unpleasant. Many of the problems that life throws our way, particularly the recurring ones, are there because they are necessary for your overall personal growth. They will keep coming until you face them and find a way to resolve them. If you refuse to accept the reality of these problems and try to avoid them, you are simply setting yourself up for the same problems to occur later. Finding the courage to face your fears is really the only way to defeat them and live free. It will not be easy, but it will be worth it.

      Know thyself. Being honest with yourself opens the way for you to come to a clearer and deeper understanding of your own nature. You can speed the process by asking yourself who am I, what am I, what is good and what is bad for me, where am I going, what is my mission in life? Opening yourself up in this way means recognising where your defences and blockages are , and then finding the courage to give them up. The opposite of this is the uncritical mind-set of the person who cruises along through life, making largely unconscious choices based on comfort and security and the conventional wisdom of the society in which they live. They do not know themselves; they are too focussed on what the outside world thinks.

      Ultimately, finding your purpose in life is about asking yourself the question every day until the truth begins to dawn.

      Compassion is a virtue that benefits a person in a multitude of ways. Compassion helps you find a sense of purpose by allowing you to empathise with the people around you and to know what their needs are. Compassion is another name for unconditional love. It is a powerful force because it creates in you an awareness of the interconnectedness of everything in Nature. From this awareness, a sense of purpose can emerge. The opposite of compassion is cruelty. It makes

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