Famous Tibetan monks. Tibetan longevity. Video of morning exercises of Tibetan monks

Tibetan monasteries accept people from the age of six, and by the age of 21 you can receive the status of gelong - an enlightened monk. And if at the beginning of the path it is necessary to fulfill only three more commandments than an ordinary layman, then upon completion of training one must remember and observe more than 250 vows. It’s even more difficult for nuns - they have 350 commandments.

Young Tibetans who have embarked on the path of enlightenment are first asked if there are any circumstances that could prevent them from doing so. After passing the test, the newcomer must choose two teachers: one of them will be responsible for teaching the basics of Buddhism, and the other will be responsible for carrying out public duties in the monastery. After this, the future monk is cut almost bald, leaving only a small tuft of hair in the crown area. It will be shaved off when the abbot of the monastery approves the neophyte's acceptance into the community.

The daily routine in the monastery is determined by a simple formula: eight hours of spiritual practice, eight hours of physical labor and exercise, and eight hours of rest, food and sleep. The monks' day begins at six o'clock in the morning with prayer, which lasts two to three hours. After a modest breakfast there is another hour of prayer. Next, novices study religious texts, engage in daily work, physical exercise and throat singing.

In the afternoon, the inhabitants of the monastery gather for collective meditation, which can also last up to three hours.

The evening is reserved for religious debates, where young monks learn to defend their point of view and discover the provisions of Buddhism that were not understood during their training.

Lunch at Kopan Buddhist Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal

The diet in the monastery is ascetic: mainly rice and vegetables with Tibetan bread. The main drink of the monks is Tibetan tea. Salt, yak milk and butter made from it are added to it. This recipe is more than 1400 years old, and despite its very specific taste, Tibetan tea is very nutritious and quenches thirst well. Such asceticism, Buddhists believe, contributes to the triumph of the spirit over the body. The most enlightened lamas can survive with virtually no food.

Tibetan monks living in exile at Kirti Monastery in India

Some monks, having reached a certain level of spiritual development, may decide to leave the monastery and live as hermits. Many leave only for the summer to spend it meditating alone in nearby caves, and return to the monastery during the harsh winter. However, there are also those who leave the community for several years.

Monks play football on the monastery grounds in Pokhara, Nepal

Despite all the asceticism, the more enlightened monks - lamas - understand that young novices can be interested in completely worldly things. Mentors often turn a blind eye to the fact that their students play football or use modern gadgets in their free time. After all, llamas themselves periodically pick up smartphones to read the latest news.

Tibetan monk at the gate of Labrang Monastery in Gansu Province, China

However, among the Tibetan monks there are also those who live in full accordance with the customs of their ancestors - without the Internet, television and other modern entertainment. Legends say that they can go into a trance and remain in it for decades. To do this, the monks go to the mountains and voluntarily agree to be walled up in small chambers, in which there is only enough space for a person sitting in a meditation position. Once a week they are brought a small portion of food and water, and after some time the hermits refuse this too. This way, the monks believe, they have the opportunity to get closer to the Buddha himself.

You may have heard or read legends about Tibetan longevity on the Internet. I propose to investigate this issue right now.

By the way, the authors consider the source of Tibetan youth to be an elixir of garlic, lemons (all 10 heads each) and 700 ml of honey. They promise that a teaspoon of this elixir three times a day before meals will work a miracle: acne will go away, the skin will smooth out, chronic fatigue will go away, potency and the menstrual cycle will improve, immunity will increase, and there will be relief in chronic diseases. In general, youth will return, and you will live happily ever after.

I will not dwell on the complex effects of a daily combination of garlic, lemons and honey on the body (especially with chronic diseases). I won’t suggest thinking about the liver, tooth enamel and cholecystitis..

Let's think about a more general and important question: Does Tibetan longevity really exist?

In the legends about Tibetan longevity they say that the minimum life of a Tibetan monk was 100 years, but mostly more...About the fact that some monks are still alive from the 16th century...The fact that youth and longevity for more than 100 years occur due to spiritual development and special Tibetan medicine..

But is this really so?

Of course, as part of our “Longevity” project, we could not ignore this interesting and important topic, so we tried to understand the issue.

What is Tibet

Tibet is a region of Central Asia, located on the Tibetan Plateau. Distinctive features are Tibetan language and religion: Tibetan Buddhism.

In 1950, the Chinese army annexed Tibet. The former government of Tibet, headed by the Dalai Lama (literally great teacher) signed the documents of accession to China and has been in India since then.

Since then, Tibet has been part of China as the Tibet Autonomous Region and several autonomous regions in the provinces, the capital being Lhasa.

Living conditions and longevity in Tibet

How do the indigenous people of Tibet live?

While researching the issue of longevity in Tibet, I came across an interesting document - the preliminary minutes of WHO meeting No. 20 (download) in Geneva, dated May 29, 1975.

I will quote an excerpt from it:

Ms TZUJENCHOKA (China) explained:
Until 1951 the masses of the Tibetan population were not provided with any medical care or medicine, and therefore there was a very high mortality rate for mothers and children.

Immunization campaigns have been carried out against certain diseases, and smallpox and cholera were eradicated.

There is no reason not to trust the eyewitness: she tells in detail how many hospitals have been opened, how many doctors have been trained, how much the population is covered by medical posts.

Here's more data:

During Chinese rule in the Tibet Autonomous Region, grain harvests and livestock numbers tripled.

The average life expectancy of the population increased from 36 to 67 years, the population itself has grown almost 3 times and in 2009 approached 3 million people.

Wikipedia

The picture of Tibetan longevity is not very pretty.

In recent years, Tibetans have had two serious problems.

1 problem: death of many Tibetans during a protracted conflict with the Chinese authorities. And this conflict essentially continues to this day: the last major performance was in 2008 before the Olympics in Beijing

US Congress Opinion, 1987:

Section 1243.

...more than 1,000,000 Tibetans died from 1959 to 1979, which was a direct consequence of political instability, executions, imprisonments and large-scale famine

Problem 2: the indigenous population of Tibet is experiencing difficulties due to the fact that it is being crowded out by Chinese migrants to the detriment of the indigenous population. Accordingly, difficulties with getting a job, low standard of living, etc.

Is longevity possible in this situation, at least for the general population?
Obviously the answer is negative. For the bulk of the Tibetan indigenous population, the question of longevity is not an issue.

Facts about the longevity of Tibetan monks

Tibetan medicine was concentrated in monasteries, and only initiates, monks, possessed knowledge. And the main keeper of the secrets of Tibetan medicine are the Dalai Lamas.
It is logical in this case to assume that it is the highest monks who should have maximum health and longevity.

Let's look at the facts. Below is a table with the dates of life of the Dalai Lamas since 1391 (Wiki)

We see that there is no talk of any life expectancy of 100 years or more.

Conclusion about Tibetan longevity:

Rumors about Tibetan longevity are greatly exaggerated.
However, I would like to believe in a miracle that somewhere far away people have finally mastered the miracle of longevity...

At the same time, we in no way deny Tibetan medicine or its effectiveness- this issue was simply not considered within the framework of this article.

Everything about Tibet is mysterious and mystical in itself - this region is too isolated from the rest of the world, the natural conditions here are too exotic, the esoteric reputation of the local residents is too stable. Everything that concerns monasticism is mysterious and mystical - for most people, the decision of some to abandon the joys of ordinary life for the sake of spiritual purification and improvement seems incomprehensible. And Tibetan monks are doubly mysterious and mystical...

Life of Tibetan monks: abstinence, meditation, martial arts?

There are at least three ideas about Tibetan monks, that is, about novices of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries - Tibetan Buddhism is a special branch of Buddhism, characterized, in particular, by the doctrine of the transfer of spiritual knowledge and power through rebirth (Lamaism). One of them is purely Western and is based primarily on cinema. According to him, Tibetan monks and martial arts are inseparable concepts. Monks are strong, shaven-headed men who, from morning to evening, do nothing but train or meditate. . Thanks to this, they acquire unique physical and paranormal abilities: all the ancient secrets of Tibetan monks boil down to the ability to crush stones and trees with their hands, levitate, as well as control internal energy and kill enemies with one or two touches.

The second view is less subject to stereotypes, but it is also idealized. This picture of life in Tibetan monasteries is common among Western intellectuals seeking some spiritual wisdom and enlightenment from the esoteric teachings of the East. For these people, at a certain stage of life, there is simply no other dream than to become a Tibetan monk. Because Tibetan monks are people who have chosen the path of complete renunciation of everything earthly. Every day begins with prayer and ends with prayer. During the day, they perform physical work, study Buddhist wisdom and are in a state of meditation. They are silent and reserved, no negative emotions or thoughts bother them, they strive only for dispassion and achieving Nirvana. And the most perfect of monks are hermits who go into mountain caves or lock themselves in tiny huts and take a vow of silence.

And there is a third option, which opens up with direct acquaintance with real life in the Buddhist monasteries of Tibet. With the very life in which the characteristic yellow or brown clothes of Tibetan monks not only command respect from local residents, but can also become a cause of persecution from the Chinese authorities. That life in which the legendary martial arts are almost not practiced among Buddhist monks: one part of the monks bears physical obedience and performs specific work, the other part is focused on meditative practices and rarely moves. That life in which many Buddhist monasteries have turned into a kind of tourist centers for foreigners, where colorful but irrelevant scenes and spectacles are shown to them, and no supernatural events occur.

Doesn't Tibetan monks' meditation prolong life?

One of the main modern information trends associated with Tibetan Buddhism is the belief that local monks have some unique and miraculous theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of health. Allegedly, there is a certain recipe for the longevity of Tibetan monks, which allows them to live at least 80 years and at the same time be absolutely healthy all their lives. At the same time, the treatment of Tibetan monks is carried out exclusively by non-traditional methods that have nothing in common with modern Western medicine. True, none of the European popularizers of Tibetan wisdom are in any hurry to use these traditional remedies on themselves: since they include not only all kinds of compresses and infusions of medicinal herbs, but also bloodletting with cauterization.

In addition, the diet of Tibetan monks has gained great popularity on the Internet - supposedly a special nutritional system that not only does not contain any harmful components, but also promotes fast and effective weight loss. It is difficult to say why the monks of high-mountain Tibetan monasteries need recipes for weight loss. However, numerous women concerned about this problem have actively taken up the promotion of “Tibetan” diets. The secret of this recipe is called not only the composition of the menu (complete refusal of meat, an abundance of plant foods), but also a special order of nutrition - a certain order of consumed products, a leisurely and thoughtful meal, active consumption of water, and the like. True, it does not explain how a leisurely and thoughtful meal is combined with the permissibility of “snacks” in order to avoid the very feeling of hunger. It turns out that the monks eat leisurely and thoughtfully all day long, fighting hunger. It is equally difficult to explain why, despite all the supernatural knowledge of Tibetan monks in medicine and gastronomy, they are by no means long-livers, and the average life expectancy in Tibet does not even reach 70 years.

Music of Tibetan monks

Another aspect of the spiritual and cultural life of Tibetan monks, which has recently received wide coverage in the West, is the musical and literary component of Buddhist rituals. The secrets of Tibetan monks, it turns out, also lie in their prayers, spells, and mantras, either read or chanted. Mantras performed by Tibetan monks, according to some Buddhists and adherents of esoteric teachings, have magical powers. This power is supported by a special vital energy activated during the reading of mantras.

But mantras alone as a text are not enough - the special throat singing of Tibetan monks is also necessary. Only when mantras are pronounced in a special throat way, accompanied by special music or without it (throat singing can be considered as an independent musical instrument), can the desired effect be achieved. The throat singing of Buddhist monks in the monasteries of Tibet is truly an original manifestation of cultural life and is actively studied by both professional musicians and ethnographers. However, in the fashion for mantras, the statement that the books of Tibetan monks contain mantra-spells that can provide a person with happiness, health, wealth, and even weight loss is alarming. It is highly doubtful that real Tibetan monks need wealth, or even more so, to reduce their body weight in a magical way.

Alexander Babitsky

Do you think it is possible for a person to spend the winter in a snow-filled cave at an altitude of 3-4 kilometers, without fire, in light clothing or without it at all (!), and not freeze?! Any doctor will categorically answer that no. And at the same time, every year dozens of Tibetan hermit lamas pass this test without the slightest damage to their health. Their extraordinary “frost resistance” is attributed to the ability to concentrate “tumo”. In Tibet, this term refers to heat, warmth, but not just heat emanating, for example, from a red-hot brazier, but specific energy released by the body solely as a result of long-term meditative training.

Very few lamas are familiar with all categories of tumo. However, its phenomenal effect, which preserves a person’s life in severe frosts and snow storms in the high mountain deserts, is known to all Tibetans. The old lamas who teach the art of tumo keep their methods in deep secrecy, claiming that information acquired by hearsay is completely useless. To successfully practice tumo, personal instructions from a teacher are necessary.

In the photo you see how the phenomenon of Tummo (conscious increase in body temperature or Heat Yoga) is being studied on one of the Tibetan monks - a low temperature is created in the room and with the help of various sensors information about the state of a person entering the state of Tummo meditation is read.

At a monastery in northern India, lightly dressed Tibetan monks sat quietly in a room where the temperature was just 4.5 degrees Celsius. Using a yogic technique known as Tummo, they entered a state of deep meditation. Other monks immerse sheets about two meters in cold water (9.5 degrees) and place them on the shoulders of the meditators. In untrained people, such cold wraps would cause uncontrollable shivering.
If body temperature drops under these conditions, death occurs. But soon steam began to rise from the sheets. As a result of the body heat generated by the monks during meditation, the sheets dried in about an hour.
The monks present removed the sheets, then re-covered the meditators with cold, damp sheets. Each monk must dry three sheets in a few hours.
How did they do this? Herbert Benson, who has been studying Tummo for 20 years, responds: “Buddhists feel that the reality in which we live is not the main one. There is another reality that we can knock on, which is not affected by our emotions, our everyday world. Buddhists believe that this state of consciousness can be achieved through good deeds for others and meditation. The heat they generate during this process is simply a by-product of Tummo meditation."

Positive results can only be achieved by students who already have special training in various breathing exercises and the ability to achieve incredible concentration of thought, reaching the point of deep trance. Finally, special permission must be obtained from a lama of special status. Initiation is always preceded by a long probationary period, which, among other things, gives the teacher the opportunity to check whether the candidate is in sufficiently good health.

After practicing for a month or two under the close guidance of a guru, the novice goes to a remote and completely deserted place in the mountains, at an altitude of at least 4 kilometers. Lamas assert that it is impossible to train using the tumo method anywhere in a village or nearby, because the air polluted by smoke and various ground odors counteracts the efforts of the student and can seriously harm his health.

A monk-disciple, having settled in a suitable place, can no longer see anyone. Only the guru sometimes comes to check whether the novice has died in an extreme situation.

The candidate must train every day until dawn. As the sun rises, a new set of exercises awaits him. Long before dawn, the monk leaves his cave or hut. No matter how cold it is, he is completely naked or dressed in a light shirt. Anyone who devotes himself to tumo renounces woolen clothing forever and never goes near fire.

Beginners are allowed to sit on a straw mat at night. Those who have advanced in learning sit on bare ground, and those who have reached the highest stage of learning sit on snow, on ice, or in a stream with icy water. Exercises are performed only on an empty stomach, with a complete ban on drinking water. Only two poses are also allowed - “lotus” or when the feet rest on the ground and the knees touch the chin.

The training begins with breathing exercises: together with the exhaled air, the monk expels greed, pride, anger, envy, and laziness from himself. When you inhale, the spirit of the Buddha, the five wisdoms - everything noble and high that exists in the world - are “drawn in.”

During the ten stages of exercises that follow, you must fully concentrate on the vision of fire and the associated feeling of warmth, completely getting rid of other sensations and mental images.

The tumo training period ends with something like an exam. On a winter moonlit night, students confident in their skills go with their guru to the shore of a rapid mountain stream. If the waters are already frozen, then an ice hole is cut. A night is chosen when a cold, sharp wind blows and the frost crackles - such nights are not uncommon in Tibet.

Tumo candidates sit cross-legged on the ground, completely naked. Sheets are dipped into ice water and the students are wrapped in them - they must dry them with their own bodies. As soon as the sheet is dry, it is again dipped in water and thrown over the novice. And so on until sunrise. The monk who can dry the most sheets with his body wins. There are initiates who have dried up to 40 sheets on themselves per night!

In addition to this exam, there are many more ways to test the level of proficiency in tumo.

For example, a snow test. The student sits in a snowdrift. The amount of snow melted on it and the size of the melting radius serve as an indicator of the intensity of the heat emitted by it.

At the beginning of training, the sensation and generation of heat occurs only during training; As soon as the concentration of thought and breathing exercises stop, the cold makes itself felt and can even kill a person. However, for those lamas who have systematically trained tumo for many years, generating heat when the temperature drops becomes a natural function that works automatically.

A true lama-tumo is a person who is always dressed in a dress made of light cotton fabric or a special white skirt - a distinctive sign of someone initiated into the secrets of tumo.

To counterbalance them, there are anchorites, super-specialists in the field of tumo. They are superior to ordinary lam-tumos, for they refuse even light clothing and live as hermits high in the mountains in snow-covered ice caves - completely naked, for several years, and some until their death, feeding on the rare offerings of their disciples, without knowing either fire or armfuls. straw on its frozen stone bed. This is by no means a myth, these are real people, and not so few in number - many Europeans have seen them.

And further. Doctors shrug their shoulders in complete bewilderment... 65-year-old monk Sahaj Maharaj has not eaten for exactly a year. Every day he got by with only a few glasses of warm water. Incredibly, there is no bluff in this story, which is best witnessed by the doctors who have been watching the monk all this time. “When thoughts are directed in the right direction, a person does not feel either hunger or thirst, neither heat nor cold,” Sahaj Maharaj explains his phenomenon.” And further in the article: “In mountain monasteries in the Himalayas, such a test is confirmation of monastic maturity. In a piercing wind at 20 degrees below zero, a monk wearing only a loincloth must use his body heat to dry several wet sheets. And what do you think - it dries out. The famous American medium Arthur Ford in his book “Life after Death...” writes the following: “In earthly life, such cases are known (for example, the famous German mystic Therese Neumann or the Indian woman known for her holy life, whose name was Yogananda), when people could absorb radiation instead of our regular food. For many years they managed without earthly food."
A striking example of a person who fully draws energy from the environment was Porfiry Korneevich Ivanov. He walked in shorts and barefoot at any time of the year, doused himself with cold water several times a day, including in the cold, and in recent years ate raisins once a week. During the war, the Germans took him, naked, in severe frosts on a motorcycle around Kyiv, doused him with cold water, buried him in the snow and even put him in a well. And he survived because he knew how to use prana.

According to the Shi Jing (“Book of Songs”), the first manifestation of human happiness is longevity. And to achieve it, you need to take care of yourself - abstain from excesses in food, keep your body and mind clean and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Tibetan monks know much more of these secrets of youth and longevity. Thus, one of the foundations of ancient Tibetan medicine is caring for your health.

Each of us should not commit bad deeds in life, avoid revenge, boasting, envy, hatred and anger. All these feelings destroy us from the inside, bringing the body and mind to exhaustion.

Of course, it is absolutely impossible to find out in detail all the secrets that Tibetan monks keep in their cells. After all, they lead a hermit lifestyle, devoting most of their time to prayer, work and meditation. They do not want to show off their recipes for longevity, and we can only guess what gives the monks that very strength and health. However, we can analyze their daily routine and living conditions right now.

Nature and housing of Tibetan monks

Tibetan monks lead a correct, measured lifestyle. Daily group classes where they train themselves spiritually and physically, the cleanliness and comfort that the monks maintain in their housing, the absence of loud sounds and the mantras that they read - this way of life certainly has a beneficial effect on their health and contributes to longevity.

Tibetan monks' clothing

The daily routine of monks

Another important rule in their daily routine: the correct daily routine. After all, as we remember, healthy sleep time is 8 hours - during this time our body has time to rest and fully recover. But the most important thing is that you need to go to bed 2-3 hours before midnight and get up at 6 am. This schedule brings our biorhythms back to normal and helps the body work more productively.

Escape from the hustle and bustle

Hardening and proper nutrition

In addition, daily hardening procedures in the fresh air and sunlight are also the best way to promote health and longevity. Sunbathing, which lasts about 10 to 15 minutes, can cure skin diseases, and the cold water that the monks pour over the body strengthens the immune system.

Finally, moderate nutrition is perhaps the main secret of the longevity of Tibetan monks. After all, the amount of food we take should be equal to the volume that allows the body to maintain normal functioning. Overeating harms a person, stretches his stomach, and the consequence of excess is obesity and disruption of proper metabolism.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the spiritual life of the monks of Tibet cannot be understood and comprehended by an ordinary person. After all, becoming an ascetic, moving away from people, secluded high in the mountains or deserts - this is not within the power of each of us. But you can easily increase your life expectancy and improve your health.

It is enough just to correctly understand the goals of your life, comprehend it and slightly change your usual way of life. Get rid of excesses in negative emotions and food, get up at dawn and do morning exercises, give up coffee, alcohol and smoking, and the word “longevity” will acquire not only theoretical, but also practical meaning for you, writes