The Secret of Longevity

This is actually an old book which had been recently reprinted. You could sit down for about an hour or so and finished it before the sun sets.
The introduction and the opening chapters are the most interesting because the writer tells of those who were early visitors to Tibet.
Stories of these travellers meeting Tibetan monks who looked 30 years old but were actually 90. These were the people who were already practising the techniques of longevity but were never really bothered about lifespan because that wasn't their aim in life.
In fact, for these inhabitants of the so-called Shangri-La, longevity is merely a word and concept which was held in obsession by people outside their country.
Gradually, tales from this faraway land filtered back to so-called civilised land and writers began to string together an amazing series of allegedly secrets that reveal the art of longevity.
I have read this at least once. As for the exercise system that is elaborated in the later chapters, they are actually quite simple and straightforward. The techniques are simplicity itself.
The only reward that will and can be reaped from this book is the reader really tried them all out and stick by them henceforth.
The Secrets of Longevity is a wonderful read. Elegantly well told, with some very fine examples of how one should live one's life against the more attractive and rather alluring sense of modern achievements.
Somehow the underlying message in this book is that if you want to attain longevity then you should rethink your materialistic pursuits and craving for riches that may account for a shortened lifespan.
This book has a philosophy that places humility and simplicity on a very high pedestal. Something which many of us city slickers are not familiar with or even want to be acquainted with.
Hence, when we ask or try to lengthen our own lifespan, we are actually going against the grain of the society we live in. The people of Tibet and elsewhere where longevity is taken for granted, really do not adopt our kind of lifestyle.
These people lead very simple lives. Their needs are fews and the wants are limited. They do not think much about time. For them, the time is always NOW and life's greatest pleasures are found in simple things welll done.
Basically, it always narrows down to love, faith, mercy, humility and simplicity. That, in a nutshell, is the essence of longevity.