My parents have become semi-vegan in their old age and it has done wonders for their health. I say semi-vegan because they still very rarely eat meat and dairy products, like once a month or so. Since my family is Mormon they also follow the "word of wisdom" a health code that prohibits tobacco, alcohol and any other addictive drugs. Does anyone here follow a Taoist health code? It seems like there are some general things you could say about a Taoist health code. I think trying to keep things in balance and avoid getting addicted to anything would certainly be part of it. Any thoughts?

In the Quan Zhen Sect of Daoist cultivation, no alcohol, smoking, eating meat, or even eating out at a restaurant too often. One has to eat all their food on the plate, and eat just enough, never wasting. In the Zheng Yi Sect of Daoist cultivation, some, not all, drink herbal mixtures of wine, some eat meat but it is organic(should be) and cooked at home, they wouldn't smoke, but people are people and do things like that anyway. Basically both would stick to an either very strict vegan life, or very very very close to it.
There are also certain spices and flavors that aren't eaten for the sake of cultivation.

Peace and Blessings,
Lin

Thanks for your response Lin, I really need to learn more about Taoist traditions. No one else has anything to say? I like how my other threads turned into interesting debates, I think this one still has the potential. Surely more people here have opinions on what we should and shouldn't consume.

I'd say the main thing in the taoist health code is the prohibition on any type of voluntary self-mutilation (including by dietary means) and careless handling of one's body in general. This doesn't translate into specific prohibitions -- e.g., many taoists drink (some have written exquisite poetry on the subject and others have invented "drunken" martial styles), smoke, and even experiment with consciousness-expanding external-alchemical substances (not "drugs" in the Western sense though and not for "recreational puropses.") However, if any of these practices are affecting one's health adversely, they will be abandoned. The thing is, fifteen minutes of taiji detoxes a cup of any stimulant (e.g., coffee) out of the system, and an hour antidotes a pack-a-day smoking habit, so the same rules don't apply to cultivators of taoist arts as to non-cultivators. I've heard of a qigong master who smokes and tells his students not to; when questioned, he inhales on a cigarette, blows the smoke out of his fingertips, and tells them, "as soon as you can do that, you can smoke with impunity too." I've also met a master myself (who was featured in Alternative Health magazine a few years ago for his double blind placebo-controlled experiment treating cancer in mice with external qigong -- successfully) who smokes like a chimney. As for vegetarianism -- historically, very few Chinese have ever been vegetarians except out of poverty; some taoists are vegetarians but few are persistent vegetarians, i.e. there's practices that require short- or long-term vegetarian diets but most don't. It's all very individualized and can get colorful... taoism is very human, and can also be very whimsical... Some taoists cultivate extremes rather than "balance" or "the middle way" -- e.g., extreme yin or extreme Gen or some such -- for reasons that are best known to themselves (for instance, karmic).

For some good beginner's info on the subject, I recommend "Scholar Warrior" by Deng Ming-Dao. Complete with some basic recipes of specifically taoist (jing-nourishing) soups (with animals in them, all of them) which I made many times. Yum.

Ah yes... haha If one can attain such levels, by all means certain manners of relativity have no effect on the body. BUT it doesn't mean there isn't a problem with smoking. Cultivation wise, smoking keeps certain evils in the body and if cultivation is high, they remain dormant for a long time, it wouldn't matter what level of ability one attains.

In the left home people out here, who hold close to their vows and guidelines of their cultivation, they don't take in any intoxicating things, meat as well. There are those that do, and that is the manner they wish to go with it. Silly thing is that people see them and get mystified and try to emulate them without the proper cultivation.. haha.

Peace and Blessings,
Lin

Practice daily. Eat Seasonally. Fast Occasionally. Medicine can be poison. Poison can be medicine. Food is the most powerful drug.

Spectrum

Okay as a lover of szechuan and curry dishes, could you please elaborate Aiwei. What is considered bad and why? Hoping I a drink enough tea to detox any evil spices

Thx!

HAHAHA Well, for certain one must look at their own body conditions. What they can and cannot handle, healthily. For me, eating a hot and spicy dish does not server me properly.
For Daoists cultivators, of the way things were traditionally, no chives, leeks, onions, garlic, and nothing too spicy. There are a few more that leave my memory right now.
Buddhists do the same thing. The reason why they both stay away from certain flavors is because of the nature of the spice. it may cause a build up of heat and cause raw sexual stimulation, emotional imbalances, behavior imbalances, digestive problems, ...all of which can and usually does, deter one off the steady path of proper cultivation.

A list of spices.. haha really it is up to the body at hand. You know what your body can take and cannot. That is Daoist and Buddhist cultivation. But some people stick to their own urges of flavor and say it is what their body wants..

Peace,
Lin

Well I have heard that spices release endorphins, so the ancients might have been on to something. That having been said, couldn't an excess of sexual energy be harnessed and therefor beneficial to cultivation? Perhaps especially so for taoist sexual yoga.

What is your view on ginseng? It stimulates the sex drive, but I have also read that many cultivators use it to enhance their chi. Is this because the benefits signifigantly outweigh the risks (i.e. increased libido)?

Thanks again for patient council Aiwei!

Here is something I read a while back on wiki about a tasty fruit I picked up on a whim.
Can anyone confirm this?

Persimmon (Sharon fruit)

Ethnomedical Uses
In traditional Chinese medicine the fruit regulates ch'i

Thanks!