Focus

Temple visitors are told to pursue a simpler lifestyle

By Wu Yiyao (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-20 10:38

Temple visitors are told to pursue a simpler lifestyle

A Taoist monk performs daily ritual at the Baiyunguan Taoist Temple in Beijing. Many people come to visit the temple seeking better physical and mental health through the traditional Taoist teachings and practices. [Zou Hong / China Daily]

Thousands of visitors come to the Baiyunguan Taoist Temple in Beijing every weekend. Many of them come seeking better physical and mental health through the traditional wisdom of Taoist teachings and practices.

A Taoist monk surnamed Liu (no relation to Liu Tuanjiu) said he often explains to visitors how they can attain better health and longevity by following Taoist teachings.

"Through knowing the subtle feelings of one's body, mind and spirit and answering the calls of these three integral constituents of wellbeing, one may gradually have better health and more peace of mind," Liu said.

Liu said nowadays many people are too stressed to be sensitive to their true needs and focus too much on "external matters" rather than inner feelings.

"Buying apartments, competing for better jobs, raising children, all of these can be quite stressful," Liu said. "When one is stressed, one can spare little attention to the delicate changes occurring to one's health."

Liu said usually people are demanding too much and desire a great deal more than a balanced life.

"Desires are not destructive," Liu said. "Excessive desires are."

He said many excessive desires come from peer pressure. "People want things others have and compete with one another," Liu said. "Sometimes people want things they don't need because advertisements say everyone needs the products."

Sherley Chung, a 35-year-old visitor from Indonesia, agreed enjoying a simple lifestyle was the most important approach to better health.

"Following the teachings of Taoism restored my health," she said. "When I embraced the importance of a simple lifestyle, I freed myself of many unnecessary burdens."

She said she started following Taoist teachings six years ago and since then she has been much less vulnerable to illness. Chung said many kinds of sickness arise from bad diets, which includes extravagant business dinners, that "destroy life".

"But a simple lifestyle is not limited to what you eat. It is also about what you value," Chung said.

Chung said before she started following Taoist teachings, she thought designer brands constituted a huge part of who she was. She once saved money for fancy handbags and competed with her colleagues and friends to see who could achieve the most attractive look.

"I once bought a handbag which cost two months salary," she said. "The financial and mental pressure made me suffer insomnia for several months."

But when she realized that she was involved in a vicious vanity competition, she gave up the excessive desire for "external things". She said she now sleeps soundly because she does not care what others say about her.

"Now I am quite satisfied," she said.

Some visitors come to the temple for help even when they are not convinced Taoist practices will be effective.

Wang Qinxia, a 42-year-old visitor from Shannxi province, asked Liu whether physiognomy, or face reading, would improve her physical condition.

"I met a guru outside the temple who said he could tell what illness I would suffer from in the near future," Wang said. "But my friends said the guru was just a charlatan."

Liu said one's face is closely connected to one's heart, body and spirit. By reading one's face, experienced Taoist monks, especially those with knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, can tell the state of one's health.

"But physiognomy alone cannot boost your health," Liu said. "Actually you are the one who knows best about your body, mind and spirit, just like you know best whether your desires are excessive. You are not supposed to let someone you don't trust tell you what to do and what not to do."

Liu said the essential part of gaining better health is to put one's will in accordance with the rules of nature, such as the changes of weather, temperature and seasons.