Here are a very few key points from the book, ones that will enhance anyone seeking out a simple, happy life:
1. Vital Force - Our physical bodies' natural state is health, disease is the absence of health. Dis-ease. Our bodies need to be in a optimal state of health to be conduits for higher states of spiritual well-being.
2. Breath - Proper breathing is not automatic. Most are shallow breathers, but need the full, tummy filling breath to reach all the cells in our bodies. Daily meditation is an excellent place to focus on breath.
3. Irrigation - "Persons who do not drink sufficient fluids almost invariably are deficient in their supply of blood....They have an unhealthy appearance, and remind one of dried fruit, needign a good soaking to make them look plump and normal. They are nearly always sufferers of constipation..."
4. Speaking of Constipation - "Man helps along this abnormal unnatural state of affairs by failing to partake of sufficient water, and not only does not give the colon sufficient fluids to properly moisten...but he even lets his body run so short of fluids that nature, in desperation, draws back through the walls of the colon some of the water already given it for its use--failing to get spring water for her work, she must needs use sewar water. Imagine the result!" "A colon filled, or partially filled, with old fecal matter is a source of poison to the whole system."
5. Pranic Energy - Sanscrit word "Prana" meaning "Absolute Energy." Air, water, food, sunlight, are substances from which all activity, energy, power and vitality can be derived. (It means more than that, probably another concept that connotes a spirit that accompanies all living creatures.)
6. Physical Exercise - The body needs good old fashioned exercise that involves every part of the body in different movements. If you are in a desk job, even more important to move regularly, and get out in nature. Even when I do a lot of yoga in a week, I still find getting 20+ minutes on the recumbent bike and crunches important to my health and fitness. Also, breaks at work to walk outside are vital (and have been neglected due to heat).
7. Science of Relaxation - Not "loafing" but relaxing. Regularly releasing all tension from every part of the body. When in an agitated state, there is one part of you that wants to strike something, then another part that holds you back. This is doubling exhausting. Yoga helps balance the mind to a peaceful state so that more energy is conserved throughout the day. "Thoughts take the form of action." Worry is a consummate waste of energy.
8. Bathing - A daily bath (shower) and cleansing to rid body of dirt and dead skin cells important. A slightly cooler shower is recommended. First thing in the morning also recommended. At night, it recommends washing the lower legs and feet if you have trouble sleeping, it causes the blood to rush to your feet and away from your [active] brain.
9. Fresh Air - "This thing of people shutting themselves up in tightly closed rooms, lacking proper ventitation, is the most stupid idea that one can conceive of." When you sleep, especially if there are two of you, you don't want to be recycling the carbon waste that both of you expel. If you wake to a stinky room, then you've been breathing contaminated air filled with foul and poisonous gases.
10. Sleep - The best hours to sleep are those after the sun sets [before midnight], and the best hours to be awake are when the sun rises. Modern culture has us up til all hours of the night, and wasting the first precious sunlight hours.
11. Regeneration - "Proper relations between husband and wife tend to elevate, strengthen, and ennoble, instead of degrading, weakening and defiling the participants, as is the case when the said relation is based upon mere sensuality."
12. Mental Attitude - "Saliva is rendered a poison under the influence of anger; mother's milk becomes poisonous to the babe if the mother manifests excessive anger or fear...Do you doubt that disease may be primarily caused by negative thinking?" Ramacharaka provides quotes of doctors stating examples and well-observed patterns. "We suggest the frequent repetition of the words "BRIGHT, CHEERFUL AND HAPPY," and the frequent contemplation of the meaning of the words."
13. Led by the Spirit - "The man and woman in whom the Spiritual Mind is unfolding, will become dissatisfied with the artificial life and customs, and will find strong inclination to return to a simpler and ore natural principles of living, and will find a strong inclination to return to simpler and more natural principles of living, thinking and acting..."
Ah! Amen! xo, t
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